Name: The Sexism of “Genius”
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The Sexism of “Genius”

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Stockholm University gender studies professor Hillevi Ganetz examined the rise of Nobel laureates—science’s original celebrity geniuses—for a 2015 article published in the journal Celebrity Studies. The overwhelming majority of laureates are men, she noted; and when women are honored, interviewers ask questions about their clothes, their families, their domestic habits, while the male honorees are asked about hobbies and research. Thus, male laureates are presented as serious scientists with innate brilliance, female laureates as anomalies who succeeded through hard work. “The female genius must be hidden in favor of presenting a respectable femininity and a focus on the domestic sphere,” Ganetz wrote.This unequal treatment has affected how women and young girls view themselves. A 2016 study in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found it difficult for many people to associate “woman” with “genius.” “We commonly think of genius as male,” study author and Cornell University researcher Kristen Elmore told Fortune. Another study published in the journal Science in 2015 found that women graduate students were more likely to avoid academic disciplines associated with raw, inherent intelligence—fields like philosophy, physics, and math. Sarah-Jane Leslie, the Princeton University philosophy professor who conducted the study, partially blamed pop culture, where “genius men are often portrayed as being innately smart, never having had to work hard to gain their insights,” NBC News reported.A 2017 study published in the journal Nature showed that girls as young as six were more likely to characterize boys with brilliance than themselves. “This study shows that girls are internalizing those cultural messages early in development, believing that, yes they may work hard, but they are not naturally really smart,” Kentucky University psychology professor Christia Brown told The Guardian. “These beliefs can have important implications for what types of academic paths children choose to take, and shows why girls are opting out of majors like physics, despite earning high grades in school.”

Stockholm University gender studies professor Hillevi Ganetz examined the rise of Nobel laureates—science’s original celebrity geniuses—for a 2015 article published in the journal Celebrity Studies. The overwhelming majority of laureates are men, she noted; and when women are honored, interviewers ask questions about their clothes, their families, their domestic habits, while the male honorees are asked about hobbies and research. Thus, male laureates are presented as serious scientists with innate brilliance, female laureates as anomalies who succeeded through hard work. “The female genius...

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