March is Women’s History Month, of the struggle for equal rights. My grandmother, who grew up as the daughter of a primary school headmistress in Porto, at the beginning of the 20th century, used to tell me about her challenges: under the dictatorship, in order to vote she needed my grandfather’s consent. Despite progress, there are still major challenges: the gender pay gap and access to equal professional opportunities. 

The impact of gender stereotypes

Society is systemically impregnated with gender stereotypes, even in research methodologies and product design. In his book “User Research with Kids”, Snitker examines the influence of cultural norms and paradigms on methodological practices. For example, if a market research recruiter considers a product to be a “girl’s toy”, he is opposed to including the requested 50-50 ratio of boys to girls and recruits only girls. The distorted and limited sample compromises the needs and preferences of child users.

Language bias

A study carried out by the LEGO Group involving more than 6,500 parents and children (6-12) in 36 countries, including Portugal, revealed that girls feel pressure to be perfect and avoid mistakes. The compliments given to girls are often physical, “beautiful, cute and perfect”, while for boys they are linked to intelligence and ability, “cool, genius and innovative”. According to the study, 72 per cent of girls feel inhibited about sharing ideas, thus limiting their creative potential and self-confidence.

Teaching and creativity

Creativity is something distinctively human, essential for solving problems and innovating. According to Tom and David Kelley, authors of “Creative Confidence”, children are naturally curious and daring, prone to experimentation; the fear of failure is rooted in a fixed mindset that limits creative confidence.
In the educational context, there is a stigmatisation of error and divergent thinking. Sir Ken Robinson, a voice on creativity and education, argued in the most viewed TED Talk ever that schools inhibit creativity, he advocated rethinking the education system to promote creativity as much as literacy. The education system tends to value the “core” subjects to the detriment of the others, arts and physical education. The arts, as forms of aesthetic, symbolic and emotional expression, provide a broad spectrum of opportunities for experimentation and creativity and also benefit mental health.

Creative Confidence book on unleashing creativity, by Tom and David Kelley from IDEO.

Parental support and encouraging creativity

Girls face challenges in accessing STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) due to stereotypes, fewer female role models and social pressures. As parents we have a crucial role to play in supporting our daughters’ creative confidence. Some ways to address it:

— Exposure to different forms of creativity, design, arts and culture;

— DIY attitude, the practical and ecological mentality of repairing what breaks down at home, develops a sense of autonomy and problem-solving;

— Encouraging and giving them space to express themselves freely and creatively, sharing ideas, opinions and authenticity;

— Stimulating design thinking, creative and divergent: having ideas, questioning, experimenting and iterating;

— Exposure to technology, with purpose: moving from passive consumers to creators

Learning to code as a new form of literacy

There is an urgent need to transform children’s passive screen time into creation time. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the way we live, work and relate to each other. Technology, when intentional, develops technical and creative skills in an autonomous and self-directed way and builds creative confidence and equal opportunities. It’s a way to encourage girls to identify with STEM areas, prepare them for a new labour market and accelerate progress towards a more equitable society.

Algorithms are everywhere, computational thinking is almost as fundamental as reading and writing. In the post-modern world, learning to programme is a form of literacy.

To start programming, try Octostudio, Scratch’s successor, the visual programming language developed by MIT for children (6-16) to create games, animations and interactive stories in an intuitive way. Octostudio has been specially designed for mobile devices and is free of charge, free of advertising and free of in-app purchases. Children can use their drawings, images and sounds in the app and even create interactions with the physical world.

All images © Clara Vieira Rodrigues

This article was published in Portuguese in the newspaper PÚBLICO.

Links:
Octostudio
Lego campaign ‘More than Perfect’
TED Talk: Do schools kill creativity?
Why Europe’s girls aren’t studying STEM?
Why don’t European girls like science or technology? – Microsoft News Centre Europe
Creative Confidence

and in our Resources page