Irish girls as young as nine are perceived as being not as good at maths subjects as boys, despite their abilities.
That is according to one of the authors of a new report, which draws on the 'Growing Up in Ireland' study.
It found that gender stereotyping is resulting in girls' performance at maths being significantly underestimated by teachers and parents from primary school onwards.
A study of 8,000 pupils in Ireland found that the perception that girls are not as good as boys is occurring at all levels of achievement, with the gap widest for high-performing girls.
Dr Pat O'Connor is one of the authors of the research.
She told Lunchtime Live the findings raise concerns for girls' subsequent maths performance and - ultimately - their future employment.
She said: "I think it's important to remind people that the study involves just under 9,000 nine-year-old children.
"And it involves interviews both with them, their parents and their teachers - as well as an assessment of these children's scores on standardised maths tests.
"So basically even those children - those girls who scored above average on these internationally recognised standardised maths tests - those girls were not seen by their parents and their teachers as above average.
"So that even though the children were excellent, they weren't seen as such.
"And it's important to recognise that in this case you're dealing really with stereotypes.
"I mean in Ireland, maths is a marker of intelligence".
'Unhelpful to girls'
"In a way the irony of course is that telling children not only that it's a marker of intelligence - but also implicitly seeing girls as not quite as intelligent as boys, and seeing them as likely to be not as good at maths - seeing maths as the boys subject, we're conveying a message which is unhelpful to girls in terms of their own perceptions of their intelligence.
"And certainly is very unlikely to lead to them choosing, for example, science, technology, engineering and maths which requires a competence at maths".
"In a way then when they come to 18, everybody says 'Oh well we need girls to do STEM subjects and technology, engineering and maths - why aren't you doing them?'
"But the girls - even as young as nine - they've got the message that even if they're excellent at maths, their parents and their teachers won't see themselves in this way.
"So they choose subjects and courses in college which are playing to their feminine strengths - good with people - jobs which are likely to be paid less, and maybe less personally satisfying.
"So really we do need to rethink our attitude".
