Gifted girls from all ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds are living an invisible life in classrooms across the nation. Kerr (1994) observes: "A society that wastes female brilliance has made it the norm for gifted women to lead an average life, and gifted women have largely adapted to that norm.” The subtle and not-so-subtle messages downplaying the value of female achievement often begin early and accumulate over time. By age 11, many gifted girls do not know they have talents. Others, who know, guard it as a well-kept secret. This means that the abilities they could use to develop their potential are instead wasted on adjusting others' expectations (Eby & Smutny, 1990).
For gifted girls, the discrepancy between ability and self-image may assume different forms, depending on their unique characteristics and background. Gifted girls may be those who:
- achieve well but remain blind to their accomplishments;
- perform poorly despite their high ability and attribute their poor performance to low intelligence;
- are disinterested in school or achievement and excel socially, sometimes assuming popular leadership in negative ways.
These behaviors are signals that gifted girls need help. Researchers have discovered that many girls, especially in the junior and senior high school years, have ambivalent feelings about self-expression and experience a conflict between "caring for themselves and caring for others, between their understanding of the world and their awareness that it is not appropriate to speak or act on this understanding" (AAUW, 1992, p. 12).
So, the question may arise: What do gifted girls need that all girls do not? The answer is that while all girls need an ongoing support system for their development and freedom, gifted girls require support that is particularly sensitive to the dilemma that talent brings to the position of females in our society. Gifted girls face a quandary. They have abilities urging them forward, prompting them to explore all that education has to offer, yet education does not run to meet them. When boys ask questions, call out their answers (sometimes without raising their hands) or engage in debate, adults tend to see the signs of eager minds at work. Girls receive reprimands or disapproval for behavior deemed aggressive, pushy, unfeminine, or impolite. This message is not lost on gifted girls.
Gifted girls assume all sorts of extra burdens that educators need to understand. Often they don't know about their own gifts and talents. They only know they're different and, for many, they perceive that this difference is somehow strange or wrong.
In addition to their acute sensitivity, gifted girls play mental games with themselves, learned games they do unconsciously—in response to the conflicting expectations they experience both as girls and as talented people. Two examples frequently explored in the research are:
- "The Horner Effect," or fear of success, in which girls purposely hold back because of a need to please others (rather than compete with them), a need that is more intense with gifted than average girls (Kerr, 1994).
- "The Impostor Phenomenon," in which girls feel pressured to explain away their success since it goes contrary to social expectations and their own self-image. They maintain that they performed well due to luck or because people did not evaluate them properly (Kerr, 1994). Adults need to develop strategies for helping gifted girls negotiate around this emotional minefield.
Many talented girls need to learn to recognize their own gifts and the emotional challenges that accompany them (Garrison, 1989). As a group, girls receive far less reinforcement than boys. Research has proven that the content or quality of teacher responses to girls' work differs significantly from that offered for boys' work. Based on a three-year study, Sadker and Sadker (1994) identified four kinds of teacher response: praise, acceptance, remediation, and criticism, "While males received more of all four types of teacher comments, the difference favoring boys was greatest in the more useful teacher reactions of praise, criticism and remediation. When teachers took the time and made the effort to specifically evaluate a student's performance, the student receiving the comment was more likely to be male"(AAUW, 1992, p. 69).
Adults who are not aware of the unique sensitivities of gifted girls may inadvertently encourage destructive behaviors. Too much praise and confidence in a girl's ability may make it difficult for her to admit she needs help or result in dismissing her requests altogether. Gifted girls can progress beyond self-defeating assessments of themselves when supportive adults listen to their concerns, questions, and comments, and then go on to offer validation and provide direction.
Excerpted from: Gender and Giftedness by Barbara A. Kerr, Ph.D. & Megan Foley Nicpon, M.Ed.
Summary
Both gifted girls and gifted boys experience conflicts between gender identity and achievement motivation. These conflicts can prevent gifted young people from attaining the education they need, from following through on career goals, and from forming satisfying and healthy relationships. Social pressure to attain ideals of masculinity and femininity often works against the development of talent in young people. 
An understanding of gender and giftedness can help counselors, teachers, and parents guide young people through the critical “milestones and danger zones” in which the fulfillment of talent is threatened by gender socialization.