The sins of the parents: Persistence of gender bias across generations and the gender gap in math performance

While education gaps by gender have closed in many areas, they persist in STEM fields and particularly in mathematics. We study one potential explanation for this persistence: the transmission of bias from adults to children. We exploit the random assignment of children to classes in Chinese middle schools to generate plausibly exogenous variation in the proportion of peers’ parents who are biased. We present what we believe are the first causal estimates of the intergenerational transmission of gender bias and its effects on the gender gap in mathematics. An increase in the proportion of classmates whose parents believe boys are better than girls at math significantly increases the likelihood that a child holds this belief, with similar effects for boys and girls. This increased exposure to bias affects children’s perceived difficulty of math, aspirations, and academic performance, generating gains for boys and losses for girls. We find greater transmission of bias from girl peers’ parents to girls and from boy peers’ parents to boys. The negative effects of bias on girls’ test scores increase with length of exposure to peers, but diminish when a girl has more close friends in her randomly assigned classroom. ∗Eble (corresponding author): Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 W 120th St, New York, NY 10027. Phone: 212-678-7478. Email: [email protected] Hu: School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing. Email: [email protected]. Author names are shown alphabetically; both authors contributed equally to this research. We are grateful to Peter Bergman, Sarah Cohodes, Kiki Pop-Eleches, Randy Reback, Jonah Rockoff, Judy Scott-Clayton, and Miguel Urquiola for helpful comments.