Benetton is known for their vintage styles and ads but now they are trying to bring an old and negative stereotype by selling a shirt to young girls that implies women can’t love math. I’m calling on Benetton to immediately stop selling the shirt online and in their stores. 

Women are vastly underrepresented in most technical  fields and analysts say the problem starts when girls are not encouraged to pursue math, science, and engineering. Benetton is contributing to the problem by making it ‘cute’ and fashionable for girls to dislike math. 

Further, studies show that employers are prejudiced against women for their perceived lack of mathematical ability. Not only does this shirt tell girls they shouldn’t like math it perpetuates the stereotype to their male peers who will carry that harmful notion with them into the workplace.

We should all be empowering girls and boys to develop their math skills without regard to gender and confronting negative stereotypes rather than perpetuating them. Please join me in calling on Benetton to immediately stop selling this shirt and focus on positive message clothing for girls and boys in the future.