This makes sense. Since the 1960s, female representation in science has substantially increased. In the United States, at least, more women are earning science degrees, including 48 percent of chemistry degrees in 2015 compared to just 19 percent in 1966. Female scientists, though still often outnumbered by male peers, more frequently appear in textbooks, magazines, and TV shows aimed at children. “It’s optimistic that children’s stereotypes change as gender roles change in society too,” says Miller.

Vasila Christidou

Still, today’s children are drawing at least twice as many male scientists as female ones. “Twenty-eight percent women scientists is still nowhere close to parity,” says Sapna Cheryan, a researcher from the University of Washington who studies gender disparities in science. She also notes that while the proportion of women in fields like chemistry and biology have risen over the decades, women still get fewer than 20 percent of degrees in computer science, engineering, and physics. “I would be curious what an analysis of a Draw-a-Computer-Scientist-or-Physicist test would show over time,” she says. “Such an analysis could help us identify which specific fields need the most work in diversifying their representations.”

“Gender stereotypes of scientists not only shape adolescent girls’ and boys’ perceptions of who is a scientist, but also influence their perceptions of who can be a scientist,” says Jocelyn Steinke, from Western Michigan University, who studies media representation of science. They might influence whether female students see a place for themselves in science, and whether they look to scientific careers at all. They might also influence how male students see their female peers, or interact with them in professional settings later on in life.

“Stereotypes can play an important role in constraining children’s beliefs of what they can and cannot do,” adds Toni Schmader, from the University of British Columbia, who studies stereotypes and social identity. “If we can change these representations, young girls might more easily be able to envision a future for themselves in science.”

Leon Walls

Miller’s team also found that the gender stereotypes about scientists are stronger among boys than girls. Excluding Chambers’s original study, girls drew female scientists around 45 percent of the time, while boys did so just 5 percent of the time. That’s hardly unexpected: Children usually draw their own gender even when asked to draw a generic person, let alone a scientist.

Still, it’s notable that even girls, as they grow up, become more likely to draw scientists as men. At age 6, girls draw 70 percent of scientists as women, but this proportion flips around ages 10 to 11 and by 16, they draw around 75 percent of scientists as men. “Middle school is a critical period in which they’re learning this gendered information about what is a scientist,” says Miller.