Children Are Drawing Female Scientists More Than Ever, And A 50-Year Study Reveals Why

For decades, asking children to draw a scientist produced a remarkably predictable result. Most would sketch a man wearing a white lab coat, often complete with glasses, facial hair, and laboratory equipment. Women were almost entirely absent from these drawings, reflecting a long-standing stereotype about who belongs in science. Now, researchers examining more than 20,000 children’s drawings have uncovered a significant change that has unfolded across five decades.

The study, published in Child Development, found that children in the United States are increasingly likely to picture women when asked to draw a scientist. In the 1960s and 1970s, fewer than 1% of children drew female scientists, but that figure had risen to an estimated 34% by 2016. The shift was particularly striking among girls, with more than half depicting women scientists in the most recent decade examined. The findings offer a fascinating look at how children’s perceptions have changed alongside the growing presence of women in scientific education and employment.

A 50-Year Study Uncovered A Remarkable Shift

Researchers analyzed 20,860 drawings collected from children aged five to 18 over approximately five decades. The material came from studies using the Draw-A-Scientist test, an exercise designed to reveal the mental images children associate with scientific careers. By bringing together decades of responses, researchers could compare how those images changed as society and the scientific workforce evolved.

The earliest findings revealed an overwhelming preference for male scientists. During the 1960s and 1970s, fewer than 1% of children depicted women, leaving male figures as the dominant image associated with scientific work. The drawings frequently showed men in laboratory coats, sometimes with glasses and facial hair, reinforcing a familiar cultural stereotype. By 2016, however, the proportion of drawings featuring female scientists had increased to approximately 34%, marking a substantial departure from the earliest results.

The researchers published their findings in Child Development, documenting a long-term change in how children visualize scientists. The figures also showed that progress had been gradual rather than immediate. Even in the later years examined, male scientists remained the more common choice overall, suggesting that older stereotypes had weakened without disappearing entirely.

The Experiment That Exposed A Powerful Stereotype

The origins of the research stretch back to the late 1960s and 1970s, when social scientist David Wade Chambers asked almost 5,000 elementary school children to draw a scientist. His landmark 1983 study revealed just how deeply the male image had become embedded in children’s perceptions. Only 28 children drew women, and every one of those drawings came from a girl.

The remaining drawings overwhelmingly portrayed scientists as men. Common features included white coats, glasses, facial hair, and indoor laboratory settings. These details gave researchers a way to examine the assumptions children associated with scientific work, even when those children had little direct experience with professional scientists.

Chambers’ experiment became known as the Draw-A-Scientist test and was repeated in subsequent decades. The growing collection of drawings eventually allowed researchers to examine whether children’s perceptions had changed over time. David Miller, a doctoral student at Northwestern University, and his colleagues assembled the available data to investigate that question, producing a much broader picture of changing childhood stereotypes.

Girls Are Leading The Change In Perception

The most striking findings emerged when researchers separated girls’ drawings from the overall results. During the first two decades examined, only around 1% of girls depicted scientists as women. In the most recent decade covered by the research, more than half of girls drew female scientists, revealing a dramatic shift in how they pictured people working in science.

The overall figures showed a similar direction of change, although the transformation was less pronounced. Between 1985 and 2016, approximately 72% of drawings portrayed scientists as men on average, compared with more than 99% in Chambers’ original study. The decline suggests that children increasingly recognize women as scientists, even though male figures continued to dominate the drawings overall.

Several findings help explain the scale of the change:

• Early perceptions: Fewer than 1% of children depicted female scientists during the 1960s and 1970s.
• Overall progress: By 2016, approximately 34% of drawings featured women scientists.
• Girls’ responses: More than half of girls drew women scientists in the most recent decade examined.
• Historical comparison: Male scientists accounted for more than 99% of drawings in the original study, compared with an average of 72% between 1985 and 2016.

These figures show that children’s mental images of scientists have become more varied across generations. Girls, in particular, appear increasingly likely to associate scientific careers with women, although the drawings alone cannot establish what influenced any individual child’s choice.

Women Have Become More Visible In Scientific Careers

The changing drawings coincided with a substantial increase in women’s participation in scientific employment. Researchers compared children’s perceptions with workforce figures covering several decades and found that women’s representation increased across multiple scientific disciplines between 1960 and 2013. The changes were especially pronounced in biological science and chemistry, while physics and astronomy continued to have a much smaller proportion of women.

In biological science, women’s share of science jobs rose from 28% in 1960 to 49% in 2013. Chemistry also experienced a considerable shift, with women’s representation increasing from 8% to 35%. Physics and astronomy saw an increase from 3% to 11% over the same period, demonstrating that progress differed significantly between fields.

Educational opportunities changed alongside employment. Women earned 19% of chemistry bachelor’s degrees in the United States in 1966, according to National Science Foundation figures discussed in the research. By 2015, that proportion had risen to 48%. These figures provide context for the changing drawings, showing that women had become a much more visible part of scientific education and employment during the decades examined.

The parallel between workforce participation and children’s drawings is notable, but it does not prove that one directly caused the other. Instead, the findings reveal two developments occurring over a similar period: women became more prominent in scientific careers, while children became more likely to picture women when imagining scientists.

Children’s Media Has Also Changed Its Image Of Science

The representation of women in science-related media has changed alongside their participation in scientific careers. In the 1960s, women and girls appeared in just 13% of images connected with science stories in Highlights for Children. By the 2000s, that figure had increased to 44%, reflecting a much greater presence of female figures in material aimed at young readers.

Children encounter ideas about professions through books, magazines, educational materials, and the people they see around them. When scientific imagery repeatedly features men, children may begin associating scientific expertise with men by default. Greater representation of women offers a wider range of examples and challenges the assumption that scientific work belongs primarily to one gender.

Girls who see women represented as chemists, biologists, and researchers have more visible examples of people pursuing those careers. Boys also encounter a broader picture of who can contribute to scientific discoveries. The study does not establish how much media representation influences children’s ambitions, but the changes in science-related imagery provide additional context for the shift documented in their drawings.

The Gender Gap Has Not Disappeared

Despite the progress recorded over five decades, the findings show that male scientists remained the dominant image in children’s drawings by the end of the study period. The estimated 34% share of drawings depicting women in 2016 represented a considerable increase from the earliest years, but it still fell short of equal representation.

The workforce figures reveal a similar divide. Women accounted for nearly half of biological science jobs by 2013 and earned almost half of chemistry bachelor’s degrees in 2015. Their representation in physics and astronomy remained much lower, at 11% of science jobs in 2013. These differences demonstrate that the experience of women in science varies considerably depending on the discipline.

There are also limits to what the drawings can reveal. A child’s sketch captures an image that comes to mind at a particular moment, but it cannot fully explain that child’s beliefs, experiences, or future ambitions. Researchers cannot determine from a drawing alone whether a child has personally met a female scientist, encountered one in a book, or simply chosen a figure without thinking about gender.

Nevertheless, the comparison across thousands of drawings provides evidence of a meaningful historical shift. The once nearly universal image of a male scientist has become less dominant, and women have gained a more visible place in children’s understanding of scientific work.

A New Generation Is Imagining Science Differently

The research offers a rare view of how cultural perceptions can change across generations. A simple classroom drawing exercise, repeated over five decades, has revealed a gradual move away from one of the most familiar stereotypes associated with scientific careers. The change is particularly evident among girls, whose drawings increasingly feature women in roles that were almost exclusively represented by men in earlier studies.

The findings do not suggest that every child now sees science as equally accessible, or that the barriers facing women in scientific careers have disappeared. They show that children’s mental images have become more inclusive as women’s participation in scientific education and employment has grown. The relationship between these developments deserves further study, particularly as researchers seek to understand how children form ideas about the careers they may pursue.

A drawing cannot predict a child’s future, but thousands of drawings can reveal how a society’s assumptions are changing. Fifty years ago, a woman scientist was almost entirely absent from children’s sketches. Today, she is an increasingly familiar figure on the page, opening the possibility that the next generation will imagine scientific discovery without automatically assigning it a male face.

Sources:

• Miller, D. I., Nolla, K. M., Eagly, A. H., & Uttal, D. H. (2018). The Development of Children’s Gender-Science Stereotypes: A Meta-analysis of 5 decades of U.S. Draw-A-Scientist Studies. Child Development, 89(6), 1943–1955. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13039
• National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). (2019, September 26). Science and Engineering labor force. NCSES | NSF. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20198/section/2839