I knew the answer to the question my bio teacher had asked. So did at least 90% of the people in the class but not a single hand went up. There was a long, awkward moment as our professor waited for someone to speak up.
“Really, nobody?” he said. “Somebody just take a guess.” Finally, two boys raised their hands and the professor called on one of them.
“D.N.A.?” “Correct,” my professor responded. I could see a lot of people’s heads go back to their notes. I knew they knew the answer. That day in class, no girl raised her hand. This is not an anomaly.
A recent report titled “Costing the Invisible: A review of the evidence examining the links between body image, aspirations, education and workplace confidence” collected and analyzed 25 studies that in total, used a sample of more than 49,000 girls and women from ages 10-60. The report revealed that a woman’s self-confidence is a large deciding factor in how much she will participate in an academic or professional environment. Statistically speaking, 15% of women will stay home when they feel bad about their appearance, 13% won’t share an opinion, 5% won’t attend a job interview, and 3% won’t go to work.
This is one of many studies which reveals that the diminishing participation of girls in the classroom results from self-consciousness about their appearances. One international study, where 3,300 girls and women aged 15 to 64 years in 10 countries participated (Dove, 2006) found that on the days when they feel bad about their looks, 20% of 15 to 17-year-old girls will not give an opinion and 16% will avoid school. In a 6 country study (USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Brazil, and Russia) involving 1,200 girls aged 10-14 and 15-17 years, the disturbing result showed that 60% of girls have avoided an activity because they felt bad about the way they look. Social isolation is mitigated to some extent due to the fact that 25% of girls feel more confident when interacting with people online than in person (Dove, 2010) but nevertheless, these results are unsettling. Girls who perceived that they were overweight reported significantly lower grade point average and academic performance than girls who did not perceive themselves to be overweight. One of the most disturbing parts of the study (which looked at over 30,000 girls) was that no matter their actual size or weight, girls and woman were dissatisfied with their bodies. A shocking 68% of underweight girls, 42% of normal weight girls and 87% of obese girls were upset by their weight. The girls who reported dissatisfaction about their bodies also got lower grades than boys who felt bad about their own bodies. This was one of many nationally representative studies of American teenagers which demonstrated that students who thought they were fat did poorer academically than students who were comfortable with their weight, regardless of the actual weight of the students. Even more astounding, the study reported that, “The perception of being overweight was a more significant determinant of academic performance than medically defined obesity (Florin, Shults, & Stettler 2011)”. These international and national studies highlight an important fact; how we perceive ourselves, not how we look, can affect our academic success. In light of these facts, women should try to reverse this trend by showing up, raising our hands, and speaking up even when we don’t feel 100% confident. We are living in an era that is slowly rebounding against certain stigmas against women. This is valuable information and can be used to empower women in all aspects of their lives.
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