Current research on gender differences in mathematical abilities.

An analysis of six major national surveys on female and male performance on intelligence tests showed that seven times as many boys scored in the top 5 % on science tests and twice as many in the top 5 % on math tests compared to girls (Hedges & Nowell, 1995). At the same time boys were inferior to girls on reading comprehension, perceptual speed and memory. Since there were very little fluctuations in these gender differences it was believed that they were caused by biological hardwiring produced by how male and female brains evolved over evolutionary time periods. However, in recent decades social changes in the U.S. had largely achieved equality in education and in resources allocated to males and females, yet these social changes had not produced changes in gender math scores. Nevertheless, these research results that support male superiority in mathematics abilities do not address the subtle yet powerful expectations of stereotypes and sex discrimination. In the end girls and boys might both behave in ways that are consistent with cultural expectations, and in the case of mathematics and science these expectations may have little or no relationship to biology.

Recent research reported by Begley (2012) adds some further light on the nature versus nurture origin of gender differences in mathematical abilities. That research explains gender differences and concludes that women on the average are as competent as men, but there is a greater variability or spread in the boys and men’s mathematical scores. In other words while a large proportion of men do not score well on mathematics tests an equal number score very high explaining the gender difference that favor men in top science and engineering positions. The variability hypothesis would argue that there is something about how the male brain develops that explains the gender difference.

A recent study on mathematics performance in 52 cultures test the math scores in boys and girls and finds little support for the variability hypothesis. For example in elite mathematical competitions the scores of males and females vary widely by culture. In some countries the variability scores are roughly equal, and in other societies the male scores vary widely, and in some cultures female scores vary more widely. Since scores of the genders vary by culture with no consistent pattern across cultures it seems clear the lower achievements of females in mathematics in some societies cannot be explained by a biological mechanism. To draw that conclusion would require us to argue that biology varies by culture.

It seems more reasonable to conclude that cultural factors are responsible for any gender gap. Some clues are delivered by the correlation of the Global Gender Gap (measuring gender inequality) index with the ratio of boys versus girls scoring in the top 5 % on an international mathematics competition. The results showed that the larger the gender inequality the larger the gap favoring boys. Also results showed that the ratio of boys versus girls scoring high on college entrance quantitative exams is narrowing in the U.S. and fell from 13 to 1 in the 1970’s to 3 to 1 in the 1990’s. What is at work is the greater equality of female participation in American education (with enforceable mandates to ensure equality) that narrow the gender ability difference and is the contribution of the feminist movement. While not completely definitive these results strongly suggest that any difference in mathematical abilities are directly a function of the equality of resources for females compared to males in any given society.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 773