“She communicates really well, and the kids just loved it so much,” Robinson said. “I don’t think they totally knew what an engineer was, but they understood that they help build things.”

Such exposure can help schools overcome gender stereotypes that form not long after children start school, according to a from the American Institutes for Research. 

Based on a review of nearly 100 studies from 33 countries, the analysis shows that by age 6, kids already perceive boys to be better than girls at computer science and engineering. Among girls, such beliefs only grow more entrenched over time.

Without efforts to address those perceptions, girls might turn away from “fast-growing tech fields like artificial intelligence,” said David Miller, lead author and a senior researcher who started the project five years ago. 

Released Monday, the findings, he added, have “downstream implications for thinking about what high school course electives girls might decide to choose, what majors they might go into and then later, the workforce.”

from Code.org, a nonprofit that advocates for computer science in K-12, shows that girls’ participation in computer science drops off as they get older. In the elementary grades, girls comprise about half of those enrolled in a foundational computer science course. But participation falls to 44% in middle school and 33% in high school. Experts see promising increases in women , but Miller recommended even greater efforts to expose young girls to opportunities in computer science and clear up  misconceptions. 

One study cited in the paper found that roughly three-fourths of young children think that engineers work on engines and repair cars. Only a third said that engineers design things. 

Just as kids show an early bias toward boys in specific STEM fields, they also develop stereotypes that favor girls in reading and writing. By age 8, students think girls are more verbally gifted, the study found.

Julie Flapan, who directs the Computer Science Equity Project at the University of California Los Angeles, sees opportunities to encourage boys’ literacy development through their passion for gaming. 

“With technology, there’s so much storytelling that goes on in creating video games. It’s not just passively sitting behind a screen, but actually has a lot of creativity, collaboration, problem-solving,” she said. “When we focus on those elements of computing, it is really engaging for a lot of kids.”

For years, the project has offered training workshops for teachers, and over time, participation among K-5 teachers has increased. About 45% of the teachers who attended workshops last year were elementary teachers.

​​”Teachers play a huge role. School counselors also play a very big role as gatekeepers for who gets put into a computer science class,” Flapan said. Parents often enroll their sons in coding camps or encourage them to join robotics clubs, giving them a leg up over their female peers. “Teachers will see that these boys are really excelling in computer science and say, ‘See, they’re just born to do it.’ Then a girl walks in and thinks ‘Well, that doesn’t look like a space for me.’ ”

Efforts to increase computer science and engineering opportunities for girls at the elementary level, however, often depend on educators who have extra time and interest in the topic, said Robinson, now a doctoral student at the University of Houston who focuses on gender disparities in . At Sanchez Elementary, the high-poverty school where she taught previously, several girls attended an afterschool robotics program organized by a social worker. But it didn’t last long.

“It’s really hard to implement that stuff at the elementary level without a class because so much pressure is pulling you in different directions,” Robinson said.

Some previous studies suggested that in early childhood and the elementary grades, children viewed boys as more math inclined than girls, but Miller’s study showed that children think boys and girls are equally capable of mastering the subject.

The analysis found differences in how children perceive specific science fields. Students thought boys would do better in physics, while females would be stronger in biology. That’s why Miller thinks researchers should focus on the STEM fields where stereotypes are the strongest, rather than looking broadly at kids’ attitudes toward math and science.

“Computer science, engineering and physics … should instead take center stage in future research on children’s gender stereotypes about STEM abilities,” he wrote.

It’s also important to recognize progress, said Talia Milgrom-Elcott, founder of , a national network focused on building the STEM educator workforce.

In 2019-2021, for example, girls made up at least half of the enrollment in Advanced Placement at over 1,100 schools nationwide — up from 818 schools the previous year.  The Code.org report also shows that when girls take the AP computer science exam, they earn a score of 3 or higher at rates similar to boys, 61% to 65% respectively.

And over the past decade, women entering STEM fields grew by 31%, compared to 15% for men, according to the . 

“I want to know that all the deliberate efforts we’re making are adding up,” she said. 

Putting overworked, underpaid and imperiled teachers on yet another front line cannot be the solution. Instead, school communities need a collaborative solution that incorporates administrators, parents, coaches and other education professionals, and that is ultimately led by those most impacted by this crisis: girls, especially girls of color and LGBTQ+ youth.

This won’t be an easy task for most schools. In our role as co-CEOs of Girls Leadership, which works with public and private schools across the U.S., we know that fostering well-being specifically for girls is not a commonly accepted practice. This is because it means accepting that the barriers to safety, mental health and school connection are different for girls than for boys. When we speak to school leaders about bringing in a program designed to support the specific needs of girls and gender-expansive youth, the most common response we hear is, “We can’t do anything for the girls that we aren’t doing for the boys.” 

The shared assumption seems to be that if there is equality of support and opportunity for all students, regardless of gender, there will be equality of experiences and outcomes. That ideal doesn’t take into account how deeply the world is steeped in sexism, misogyny and toxic masculinity. The reports in grades 7 to 12 have experienced sexual harassment — which is the No. 1 reason that girls in our programs tell us that they don’t feel connected at school — and when they go to teachers and staff for help, they aren’t believed or supported. This is especially true for Black girls, who are confronted not only by the misogyny common in high school culture, but by racism and gender bias in a school system where the teaching force is 80% white. They are victims of peers and adults who see them as older than they actually are; experience adultification or what the girls describe as sexualization; are ignored, disbelieved, blamed, disproportionately suspended and punished for not coming forward in the right way at the right time, or for using the right tone of voice.

These are the girls who need protection the most. When they feel safe in school, all girls, and all other students, will benefit. 

Protection needs to begin with teachers and administrators. This is why our work focuses on teachers, guidance counselors, coaches and after-school program staff — the adults with the power to create a safe space. Teacher training programs almost never address the impact of gender norms on young people, nor do they teach building connections with students, 53% of whom are Black, Indigenous or students of color. Teachers need professional development that places gender and racial identity at the heart of social and emotional learning.

Educators also need standards and curriculum with objectives that are as clear for safety, belonging and well-being as they are for math and reading. Every aspect of social and emotional learning, from identity and belonging to healthy relationships and leadership, can be measured. Imagine being able to look up school scores on connectedness, including reported levels of sexual harrassment and sexual violence. That would allow school communities to truly understand their progress locally and stay accountable for how far they have to go. 

Parents and caregivers can provide support by calling on schools to include gender in social and emotional learning programs, by sharing the CDC study and by forming a gender equity committee to prioritize the needs of girls and gender-expansive youth in school policies and practices. They can also advocate for girls to participate in these committees and/or work in partnership with student-led committees. After all, girls and gender-expansive youth are experts in their own experience, and because they are the most impacted by the current mental health crisis, they should design the policies and practices that affect them. 

Lastly, there need to be accessible state and federal protections. Most of the girls and gender-expansive youth we engage in our programs haven’t even heard of Title IX sexual harassment protections and wouldn’t know how to find a Title IX sex equity officer to report their experiences. The person who fills this federally mandated role usually works out of the district office, making it almost impossible to build a trusting relationship with students who need ongoing emotional support and clear guidance through the reporting process for sexual harassment or violence. Educating students about resources and providing girls with clear access to support provides another layer of safety net.

This CDC report is an opportunity to create an inflection point for this generation, but this won’t happen if girls are treated as a problem needing to be fixed. Instead, schools, parents and policymakers must listen to the most marginalized girls and accept their input in creating systems and environments of belonging. Together, school communities and policymakers can create the foundation of safety girls need to start building the connections that will enable them to truly thrive.