GIRLS=BOYS....in math

July 26, 2008

Girls = Boys when it comes to maths
Study attacks gender stereotypes by showing that both groups do equally well in tests
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WASHINGTON - THE notion that boys are better at maths simply does not add up, claimed a study published yesterday.
Three years after Harvard president Lawrence Summers got into trouble for questioning women's 'intrinsic aptitude' for science and engineering - and 16 years after the talking Barbie doll proclaimed that 'maths class is tough' - the study paid for by the National Science Foundation has found that girls perform as well as boys in standardised maths tests.
Although high school boys performed better than girls in mathematics 20 years ago, the researchers found that is no longer the case.
The reason, they said, is simple: Girls used to take fewer advanced maths courses than boys, but now they are taking just as many.
'Now that enrolment in advanced maths courses is equalised, we don't see gender differences in test performance,' said Ms Marcia Linn of the University of California, Berkeley, a co-author of the study.
'But people are surprised by these findings, which suggests to me that the stereotypes are still there.'
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THE study analysed the gender gap at the highest levels of mathematical ability to see if more boys than girls fell into the top percentiles of scores. It found negligible differences except in the 99th percentile, where boys did outnumber girls slightly.
But among Asian Americans, the study found that the reverse was true: More girls than boys scored above the 99th percentile. Researchers think this may be a cultural, not gender-based, difference.
... moreThe findings, reported in yesterday's issue of Science magazine, are based on maths scores from seven million students in 10 US states, tested in accordance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The researchers looked at the average of the test scores of all students, the performance of the most gifted children and the ability to solve complex maths problems.
They found, in every category, that girls did as well as boys.
Professor Janet Hyde, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study, said the persistent stereotypes about girls and maths had taken a toll.
'The stereotype that boys do better at maths is still held widely by teachers and parents,' she said.
'And teachers and parents guide girls, giving them advice about what courses to take, what careers to pursue. I still hear anecdotes about guidance counsellors steering girls away from engineering, telling them they won't be able to do the maths.'
The stereotype has been fuelled, at least in part, by suggestions of biological differences in the way little boys and little girls learn.
This idea is hotly disputed. Mr Summers was castigated in 2005 when he questioned the 'intrinsic aptitude' of women for top-level maths and science.
Ms Joy Lee, a rising senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, said she always felt confident about maths, but remembered how it felt to walk into a science class full of boys.
'Maybe I was a little bit apprehensive about being the only girl, but that didn't last for very long,' said Ms Lee, president of a school club that tries to get young girls interested in science and technology, along with engineering and maths.