We all know how significant an influence peer pressure is on our children, but most of the time the pressures we worry about are those related to sex and drugs. While those are definitely pressures to worry about, there are other pressures that can affect the future of our gifted children, particularly gifted girls.

Girls often feel pressured to "dumb down," to appear less intelligent and talented than they are.


That means that girls may be closing off many options for their future. William Atkins, writer for ITWire, has written about a new study from the University of Wisconsin in his article Girls don?t do math so as to not look nerdy. While the study finds that both boys and girls may play down their intelligence, girls tend to hide their mathematic abilities and talents.

Because girls hide their mathematic abilities, those abilities are often missed. The authors of the UW study, Titu Andreescu, Joseph A. Gallian, Jonathan M. Kane, and Janet E. Mertz, say that "There exist many girls with profound intrinsic aptitude for mathematics; however, they are rarely identified due to socio-cultural, educational, or other environmental factors.?

While many girls are at risk for dumbing down, those from socio-cultural environments that don't value education or expect much from girls intellectually are at even greater risk.