Jennie&Tim on 31/5/2008 at 03:32

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(http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/index.php/Kellogg/article/women_and_math_the_gender_gap_bridged)

This study (published in Science, but I don't have a subscription) took an international test of math and reading scores in children, then broke the results down by country and the degree of equality for women in that country. Some interesting correlations were found, there is an overall math gender gap in favor of boys worldwide. The greater the gender inequality in a country, the greater the difference in favor of boys. In the Scandanavian countries, where the greatest equality was found, there was essential parity between the boys and the girls. Not only that, but you found more girls in the top performers as well; it wasn't a case of a few brilliant boys outperforming the average girl, but the scores being brought down by a few really bad boys (the "men have more variance" hypothesis). The relationship was in gender equality, not wealth of the country: girls had less of a gap in poorer countries with equality than in wealthier countries with inequality. Clearly the math gap is a product of the societies involved and their attitudes toward women.

When reading was looked at, girls outperformed boys worldwide, and in every country, even the most unequal (to be fair, I don't think they looked at places like Afganistan, where girls have been forbidden to learn until recently). Turkey was their most unequal country I think. The more equal the country, the greater the gap in favor of girls. I couldn't tell from the link I read whether this gap was caused by the boys staying still, the boys falling behind, or just not increasing their skills as fast as the girls. Clearly we need to help boys read better, as I think reading is even more fundamental to success in modern times than math is.

May we take it as a given that the solution is not to make societies more unequal again to give the boys a chance? If so, then how can we help boys gain reading skills? Are there discriminatory stereotypes we need to combat? New methods of teaching that might help the boys? And, if countries move even further towards equality than the Scandanavian countries (they scored a 0.8, where perfect equality would have been a 1.0), we may need to worry about bring boys up to standard in math as well, if the trends continue. Then again, perhaps the male drive toward competition will make up for this academic difference in the real world hurly-burly and I am worrying for nothing.

They agree that there are some biological components to various things, because in every country:

a)boys on average did better at math than reading
b)boys on average did better at geometry than equations
c)girls on average did better at reading than math
d)girls on average did better at equations than geometry (even if they did as well as boys overall)

What do you clever people think?

Starrfall on 31/5/2008 at 03:58

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That's because SMART people see through math right the fuck away and refuse to do it because they understand how to use tools like calculators.

And guess what, I haven't done any long division since 5th grade so I was right all along motherfuckers!

Starrfall on 31/5/2008 at 04:02

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You can copy my book report if I can copy your math homework.

BrokenArts on 31/5/2008 at 04:15

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Careful now, charm the teacher, she'll charm you.

Muzman on 31/5/2008 at 06:06

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I might have banged on about this before. It's tough area to work out also because of the vast differences in the way boys and girls are understood, treated at school and taught. Usually anyway. It might have changed a bit over recent years but back in sociology me and some others had bit of a look at 'the trouble with boys' as it is often characterised. Basically: girls can be reasoned with, caressed, cajoled and social forces brought to bear to get them to be obedient and behave. Boys, on the other hand, have far more in common with wild dogs; if they are not 'beaten' consistently with relentless authority and repetition they will stray and chew the furniture.
The reasons for this are complex, but this is the common sense in developmental education last time I looked. Gals often buck at the suggestion that their schooling and discipline was in any sense easy or easier than the guys, or quote the variety of teaching insanity that exists, but that's not really the thing. It's the basic assumption and how much difference that makes overall. I understand where it comes from to an extent; teacher's primary task is control in the classroom. Everything else flows from there. Outward disruptive behaviour is typically the proviso of boys, or a subset of them at least, so beat that down early and often. Girls can be anti social backstabbing little minxes to their heart's content so long as they're quiet about it. How it has become institutionalised and how that shows up in tests like this is always going to be a question, for me anyway. (Sadly we didn't really dig much deeper than that. Someone else might have)