At a time when male chauvinism seems to be on the wane in a number of countries, a paradoxical fact emerges: girls show the same capacity as boys when it comes to learning, but are treated more often with condescension and, when they stand out for their skills, often meet with rejection from people around them.

And no, it’s not a question of envy. So… what is it?

A problem linked to self-esteem

The researcher Heidi Grant Halvorston wrote some time ago that part of the reason why girls tend not to be so stubborn and assertive is the way they see themselves, that is, their self-concept. The idea is that boys and girls perceive their abilities differently, but not because of genetic differences, but because of the way they have been taught to think about themselves. In particular, he believes that bright or talented girls tend to believe that they are born with a set of abilities that they cannot change , while boys, regardless of their abilities, believe more in the possibility of improving by learning.

When children encounter difficulties, because there is something they do not understand or have not yet learned to do, the people around them encourage them to continue and often remind them of the importance of the culture of effort.

In the case of girls, however, condescension limits their learning. When they do something right, they are rewarded with kind words about how smart they are, or how well they are educated. This, which in principle is a positive thing, has a double edge: girls internalize a type of discourse that constantly reminds them that if they succeed in a task it is because “they are like that” , because it is part of their identity, and not of the repertoire of behaviours they have learned.

Creating a Culture of Stigma

Thus, when they notice that there is something they do not know how to do, they believe it is because they are simply not made for those tasks. In the same way, they will find it strange that other girls try so hard to master something they did not know how to do at first , and sometimes they can be stigmatized. This creates a culture in which an idea is internalized that kills the development possibilities of many talented young women.

Bright girls therefore have to deal with a twofold obstacle: the difficulty of learning the skills needed to prepare for adult life and the difficulty of managing the negative reactions their skills produce. But, of course, this rejection is not only born from other girls, but from many other people, because of the inheritance of machismo.

The footprint of machismo in intelligent girls

Currently, there are many studies that point out a curious phenomenon: compared to men, women are more likely to receive negative reactions when they adopt a role of authority. That is, women who behave in an assertive manner find more problems than men when it comes to asserting themselves, whether it be asking for a raise, negotiating the distribution of tasks, or proposing initiatives and strategies.

This disparity between men and women may well be rooted in the childhood years, in the way boys and girls interact with each other at play, in group activities. The role of women has traditionally been linked to household tasks and raising children , a context characterized by stability and in which they cannot stand out from other people. Competitiveness in an unstable and changing context was the task of men, who left home to earn money by differentiating themselves from the competition.

This makes the male role more related to individualism and differentiation through effort, while women adhere to much more discrete roles. The existence of bright and talented girls who struggle to polish their skills and who do not bother to adopt a low and discreet profile clashes with this conception of men’s and women’s tasks.

Concluding

If girls with special talents receive negative feedback from other people, it is basically because where the education of these minors is carried out there is also a cultural context with the presence of machismo to a greater or lesser degree.

Presumably, addressing this social and collective problem will also improve something as individual as the way in which each of these young women experiences her potential without being stigmatized for it.