The math gender gap myth?

Question

What do you think of this study published recently in The Economist?

"Luigi Guiso of the European University Institute in Florence and his colleagues have just published the results of a study which suggests that culture explains most of the difference in maths, at least. In this week's Science, they show that the gap in mathematics scores between boys and girls virtually disappears in countries with high levels of sexual equality, though the reading gap [girls outpacing boys in reading] remains."

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11449804

Answer 1

As a teacher, I would agree with it.  Of course I teach the very young (6 and 7 year olds), but there is not one subject in which my boys or girls perform higher in.  Many of these gaps begin to appear around middle school age in the US...when children start dating as well as seriously playing sports. I think it has more to do with the focus being taken of school and put on friends, boyfriends/girlfriends and at times extracurricular activities.

EDIT-CAustin

In my experience boys do tend to be tested as having more reading problems.  Personally I think it has more to do with reading material available and what interests boys in general.  I found this wonderful website called guysread.com . They focus on the needs of boys in reading by supporting parents and teachers as well as give resources and lists of books many boys may find more excited or interesting than those traditionally taught in schools.

Answer 2

I think it's cherrypicking - and judging by your previous question, you do too.

Answer 3

Well it makes sense that a woman would have more capabilities through confidence and an equal learning environment. Regardless of the teacher, I still suck at math (it's just not within my programming. They say that women are typically better at language applications because we communicate through language more readily then men.

Answer 4

Tracy

Taken from you own link

Quote "This suggests an interesting paradox. At first sight, girls' rise to mathematical equality suggests they should be invading maths-heavy professions such as engineering—and that if they are not, the implication might be that prejudice is keeping them out. However, as David Ricardo observed almost 200 years ago, economic optimisation is about comparative advantage. The rise in female reading scores alongside their maths scores suggests that female comparative advantage in this area has not changed.

According to Paola Sapienza, a professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management in Illinois who is one of the paper's authors, that is just what has happened. Other studies of gifted girls, she says, show that even though the girls had the ability, fewer than expected ended up reading maths and sciences at university"

This suggest 'TO ME' that  (currently) Girls can’t cut it in the real world!!!

You best read the work of the feminist - Susan Faludi

The Terror Dream (In search of the visible woman), by Susan Faludi

Answer 5

It is obviously not a serious "study" because it was clearly conducted by femmies who had an agenda to push so they tweaked it to prove their points. Duh.

::sarcasm::

Answer 6

There is a difference between natural ability and interest.  Girls were still less interested in science and engineering.

Answer 7

""Girls are becoming as good as boys at mathematics, and are still better at reading""

Girls are doing better than boys when it come to reading, that's equality in education?   Highly doubt it.  Both Norway and Sweden are very much "feminist friendly" countries, that alone basically destroy the notion of equality.  There are different kind of "equality".  In this case it seem like "equality" mean, only when girls are doing better.   If anything, this study further show that education in those countries are bias against boys.

Answer 8

They used the 'Gender Gap Index' which only uses education in only a small portion of it.... and the index includes "Literacy rates and enrollment rates" for it's education calculations.

Mathematically, if you're using an index that the portion you're using it for pertains to literacy rates, but then showing that in supposed "equal" countries-the literacy rates are less for men.... that is entirely contradictory and heavily relies on the other portions of inequality in that country apart from education.

This report actually has proved the opposite of it's intentions.... that boys actually are less equal in these countries in this respect because the Gender Gap Index uses

'Outcomes' instead of 'Means'(opportunity) and as stated, boys have worse outcomes.

Basically in more simpler terms: If they are using an index that uses 'Outcomes' to determine equality and boys have a worse outcome in education, how can you say that those countries are more equal than other countries when it comes to education? They are actually less equal towards boys. This whole interpretation of the study is silly.

As Spuddy said, it does seem to cater to woman power sentiment. "It's a social thing if women dont' do as well, but it's not if men don't do as well because they're natural idiots. Social Construction only applies to women" and using contradicting self-referentiality fallacies to attempt to prove it.

Answer 9

I would expect this.

After all, girls academically outperform boys in this country all the way up to the high school level, and it's upon entering college and the workforce that the disparity suddenly reverses, which seems to be mainly tied to a cultural aversion in girls to pursuing careers of high technical difficulty, not a lack of academic ability.

The gap remaining in reading surprises me a little - I'd be interested in further investigating that (my hypothesis would be that the gender equality in such countries wasn't quite perfect, and there was still some disparity in how much young girls and boys were encouraged to read, though I suppose it's possible that males have some sort of inbuilt handicap with reading).