Paradoxically, this trend is particularly marked in countries that are more egalitarian, and among girls who demonstrate very good academic performance.

If gender stereotypes have been widely studied in the past, this new work published in the journal Science Advances has the advantage of not being limited to small samples, and of allowing countries to be compared.

They were conducted based on the results of the Pisa survey, which surveys the performance of 15-year-old students around the world every three years, particularly in reading, mathematics and science.

In 2018, more than 500,000 students were also questioned for the first time on this sentence: "When I fail, I fear that it is because I do not have enough talent".

Result: in the 72 countries studied except one (Saudi Arabia), even at equal performance, girls were more inclined to attribute their failures to a lack of talent than boys, who were more likely to blame external elements.

In detail, within OECD countries, 61% of girls said they agreed with this statement, compared to 47% of boys – a difference of 14%.

In non-OECD countries, this gap was still present, but almost half as pronounced (8%).

Glass ceiling

"We have no excellent explanation" for this paradox, Thomas Breda, CNRS researcher and co-author of the study, told AFP.

But this apparent oddity has already been observed in the past, for example for self-confidence, or the choice of studies – with gaps between girls and boys widening in more egalitarian countries.

This shows, according to the researcher, that "as countries develop, gender norms do not disappear, but reconfigure themselves."

One hypothesis put forward is that more emancipatory countries ultimately leave more room for individuals to fall back into old stereotypes.

These countries are also very focused on individual success, and thus value talent more.

"In a society where we don't care whether people are more or less talented, there is less room for these stereotypes" period, suggests Mr. Breda.

The researchers further showed that there is a strong correlation between the idea of ​​being less talented and three other indicators studied as part of the Pisa survey: the more girls think they lack talent compared to boys, the less they have confidence in themselves compared to them, the less they enjoy competition, and the less chance they have of seeing themselves working later in the information and communication technology sector (reputedly masculine and well paid).

However, these three indicators are often cited as reasons that may contribute to the existence of the glass ceiling, which women face in accessing the highest positions.

These results are thus not very encouraging for the future: they "suggest that the glass ceiling is unlikely to disappear as countries develop or become more egalitarian", according to the study.

An advanced track to move the lines: "get out of the rhetoric of pure talent", advances Thomas Breda.

"Success goes through learning through trial and error. (...) If we deconstruct the idea of ​​pure talent, we will also deconstruct the idea that girls are less naturally endowed with talent than boys. ".

© 2022 AFP