Rocketboom

Researchers from Rutgers University gave a short chemistry exam to local 9th and 10th graders—29 male and 52 female. The students read three pages of a chemistry text and then took the test on the material. All the texts were the same, but they were illustrated differently. One third of the students saw pictures in which everyone was a man. For another, there were only women in the illustrations. And a third group had a text with pictures of both male and female chemists.

Girls who read the text with all-female pictures scored a great deal better than girls who got other versions. In fact, girls who saw only women chemists in their text scored better than boys. Boys did best with the all-male images, though not by much. And mixed-gender images didn’t alter the usual gender gap.

via: rocketboomtech: Mind Hacks