High schoolers experience burnout on all different levels. Over the past 20 years, educators have begun to examine whether school practices harmfully affect girls. Studies show girls are more likely to experience burnout due to greater academic pressures, such as getting better grades, helping other students, speaking up in class, and doing schoolwork correctly.  Besides the expectation to excel academically, there are behavioral or social expectations, too. They are expected to be quieter and support their fellow students.

Besides being expected to do well in school, girls are expected to be role models. Honor Kier, ‘28, recalls teachers sitting her “next to rowdy guys” because she was quiet and polite with the idea that it might “rub off on them.” 

Many students agreed that there is a higher expectation for girls to do group project work. In a recent poll of Boulder High students, 88% percent of female students said they felt responsible for group projects. Zyan Schultz-Williams, ‘27, for example, said she always feels like she is the person who has to “step up and do the research and find quotes and organize the group.” Adding that she is often “the leader” of groups.

While many educators quote scientific research on the difference in boys’ and girls’ brain development to answer why girls’ have different expectations and exhibit different behaviors in school, one must wonder how much is science and how much is society’s expectations. Although differences in learning aptitude have been linked to gender, more recent studies are pointing to societal expectations for these differences. 

Boys are often expected to outperform girls in math and science, and vice versa in the humanities. A study showed that when college students were given a math test and informed that the test often reveals gender differences, men outperformed women. But when they were told it was a fair test, no difference emerged. A survey by Cambridge Assessment in 2015 found that across the globe, boys reported spending less time on homework and often saw academic achievement as opposite to traditional masculinity.

Aster Schultz-Williams, ‘29, experiences the difference in gender expectations, too.  “Boys aren’t expected to do as well as girls in the classroom. Boys have worse grades, and it’s mostly girls who are taught to do a lot of work,” adding that it’s boys who “slack.”

Beyond a heightened pressure to perform well in school, girls are also expected to be more respectful in class and consider others’ opinions or feelings when speaking up. Kara Doughty, ‘26, mentions the difference in teachers’ reactions to boys or girls being disrespectful. With boys, it’s a “class joke” while girls are expected to know better. Tomas Iturbe Ugaz, ‘26, says that he feels that one of his teachers “finds the guys in the class funnier than the girls and is usually more relaxed with keeping us in line.”

Most of the girls interviewed said it was hard for them to say no to peers who asked them for help with schoolwork. In contrast, Mathew Stuckey, ‘26, says that he feels bad, but at the same time, “has other stuff to do.” 

From a young age, girls are taught to be quiet, thoughtful, and socially aware, with Mr. Salazar noting girls are “much more mature” and often easier to work with as they are “organized and focused.” Often, these gender expectations are so ingrained that students and teachers do not notice them.

Ms. Rossin notes that boys raise their hands high and confidently when answering questions, while girls often raise their hands “quietly,” at shoulder level. That small physical difference can be a microcosm of the differences in expectations about how boys and girls move throughout the world and in the classroom. 

​What are we teaching girls about the world’s gender expectations? In 2023, according to the Harvard Law School Forum, only 8.2% of the CEO positions at S&P 500 companies were held by women. Often, positions such as CEO go to people who are assertive and loud rather than quiet and timid. Women who are CEOs are often perceived as annoying when they assert the same level of confidence as men.