ABSTRACT
In discussion with teachers in Girls into Science and Technology (GIST) workshops GIST sometimes bluntly told that girls can't do maths, that the abstractions of physics were beyond them, or that technical crafts require a physical strength girls do not possess. The GIST cognitive tests, and the suggestive link between intellectual performance and relevant earlier experiences, went a long way to undermining teachers' biologically determinist views. The approach developed by the team was to minimize the threatening nature of the project by deliberately playing down the personal aspects of sex stereotyping in order to concentrate on professional concerns of equality of opportunity within school for all pupils. Yet it is apparent that those teachers who were most active in pursuit of the project's aims, and most prepared to open up discussion with pupils, had considered the personal as well as the professional implications. The GIST interventions seems to have made a measurable and significant difference to children's sex role stereotypes.
