What elements pop up in your mind when you think of scientists? A pair of glasses, or a few wrinkles on the forehead? And do you think of a man, or a woman?

Well, as recently reported by BBC News, children in the US     1     women with scientists more than in previous decades, according to a new study.

“Draw a scientist” is an open-ended test designed to investigate children’s     2     of a typical scientist, and has been conducted by sociologists in various studies since the 1960s. After it began, a singular theme     3    : most of the scientists drawn were men.

In the 1960s and 1970s, less than one percent of children drew a woman when asked to draw a scientist. But now, the number has risen to as high as 28 percent, given the fact that women’s     4     in the scientific workforce has improved significantly.

Jocelyn Steinke, a professor at Western Michigan University in the US, told the Washington Post “the study is important because it shows that children’s gender stereotypes(成见) of scientists have     5     over the past five decades in the United States.”

However, children are still far more likely to draw a(n)    6     male figure when asked to draw a scientist. As found in the study, girls draw on     7     58 percent of scientists as men, with boys drawing 96 percent.

“The fact that children are still drawing more male than female scientists reflects their environment. Given the under-representation of women we observe in several science fields, we shouldn’t expect equal numbers. But     8    , we can see that children’s stereotypes change over time,” David Miller, the study’s lead author, told BBC news.

The author of the study suggested that media stereotypes play a     9     role in children’s views of scientists as they get older. For example, children may determine     10     characteristics of a scientist based on certain aspects they see in the media, including a scientist’s sex or what they wear.

Meanwhile, as the Washington Post noted, gender stereotypes “exist across other professions”. For example, when asked to draw a teacher in another study, only 25 percent children in one study drew a man.