Young children expect and approve of teachers' gender stereotypes about academic interest

Gender stereotypes, such as the belief that boys are more interested than girls in engineering, contribute to gender disparities. Do children enter school already expecting teachers to hold these stereotypes, even without evidence that the teacher is biased? And do they view it as acceptable for teachers to act on such stereotypes? In Experiment 1 (1a: n = 145, 1b: n = 207), 5- to 7-year-old U.S. children predicted that teachers meeting their students for the first time would assign engineering activities to boys and reading activities to girls, even when children knew that the students liked both activities equally. In Experiment 2 (2a: n = 90; 2b: n = 132), children approved of teachers assigning engineering activities to boys and reading activities to girls, and rated these assignments more favorably than assignments counter to gender-interest stereotypes. Together, these findings show that children enter school expecting teachers to hold gender stereotypes about academic interests and view acting on these beliefs as acceptable, highlighting a potential early obstacle to educational equity.