U.S. Study Proves Girls and Boys Equal in Mathematical Ability
Jul 26th, 2008 by admin
Hypatia, Sophie Germain, Sonya Kovalensky, Emmy Noether, and Grace Hopper (above) are among the greatest female mathematicians of all time.
A study of 10 million U.S. students in grades 2-10 in 10 states has proved what we’ve always known, as women: that we are not “bad at math” because we are female and we are not worse at math than men are.
Zip. Zilch. Nada. There’s no real difference between the scores of U.S. boys and girls on common math tests, according to a massive new study. Educators hope the finding will finally dispel lingering perceptions that girls don’t measure up to boys when it comes to crunching numbers.
“This shows there’s no issue of intellectual ability–and that’s a message we still need to get out to some of our parents and teachers,” says Henry “Hank” Kepner, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Reston, Virginia.
It won’t be a new message. Nearly 20 years ago, a large-scale study led by psychologist Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, found a “trivial” gap in math test scores between boys and girls in elementary and middle school. But it did suggest that boys were better at solving more complex problems by the time they got to high school.
Now, even that small gap has disappeared, Hyde reports in tomorrow’s issue of Science. Her team sifted through scores from standardized tests taken in 2005, 2006, and 2007 by nearly 7 million students in 10 states. Overall, the researchers found “no gender difference” in scores among children in grades two through 11. Among students with the highest test scores, the team did find that white boys outnumbered white girls by about two to one. Among Asians, however, that result was nearly reversed. Hyde says that suggests that cultural and social factors, not gender alone, influence how well students perform on tests. Link
Take that, Lawrence Summers.
Heart
Actually, when the playing field is levelled, girls academically outperform boys, not just maths.
In the UK, this has *apparently* led to some sort of “educational crisis” whereby they must fix the problem of boys ‘underperforming’ (IOW, being beaten by girls).
I cannot raise much sympathy for the current ‘crisis’, as there was never a ‘crisis’ declared in the last few hundred years when girls were held back, either in specific areas or education generally.
Even when I was in mixed-sexed classes, I was always the top or in the top group in maths. And that was back in the days of the old belief that maths was a ‘male’ subject.
Math and science based jobs are the highest paying in the world.
I’ve often thought that men put up a lot of blocks to keep women from these very well paid professions. The very worst sexism still exists in the financial world. Since I got hired at my compnay awhile ago, no other women have succeeded in my office, but men who have been hired have. 90% of the planners in our company are men.
Being a radical lesbian armed with Mary Daly analysis, I have low expectations and don’t bother with the sexists. But I can focus on markets my male colleagues have no access to and no clue about, and that’s where the opportunity lies.
Math is the great equalizer. Men have a very hard time with dissing you if your numbers are up there. So women need to know, that armed with a calculator, they are invinceable.
This article was much need evidense of the truth, and yes, take that Larry Summers!! Kicked his butt good, yes we math / science women did!!
P.S. Love all these math, science, economic topics! Just great stuff! Love it love and more love it
Despite this latest evidence proving yet again that girls despite the myths, are equally as competent as boys with regards to maths, I have no doubt the media will twist these latest findings.
Ann Gallagher in the report said ‘the boys tend to be a little more idosyncratic in solving problems, the girls more conservative in following what they’ve been taught.’ I can see this comment being used to claim ‘ah but this shows girls are incapable of independent thought since all they can do is repeat what they have been taught. Maths is about solving problems yet girls are incapable of solving problems because they can only take in information and not analyse it whereas boys use their reasoning powers.’ No matter how much evidence is produced there will continue to be claims that girls are not capable of undertaking maths because their brains are female ones, whereas boys brains are ‘male.’
On no account must we investigate or analyse how gender socialisation operates wherein girls are actively discouraged from using their minds because no one likes a ‘girl who is cleverer than a boy.’ Perhaps this explains why so many girls are adopting a ‘conservative’ approach, because being ‘intelligent is still seen as unfeminine.’
Gender is a social construct, so I don’t see why girls and boys’ mathematical abilities would be different.
There are countless studies trying to “prove” that men and women are inherently different and it makes me sick, ’cause I know that both groups have been socialized differently in order to create such a difference.
This article is good though, ’cause it states:
<i>a large-scale study led by psychologist Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, found a “trivial” gap in math test scores between boys and girls in elementary and middle school.</i>
Not surprised…
I used to be crap at math, I’m now good at it now though.