What I really find interesting is the gender disparity among children and adults advanced at math. I know it is debatable, but that withstanding, is mathematical precocity overlooked in girls? Are boys nurtured more in the area of math? Is it biological? Does it have something to do with males tending to be more visual-spatial than women?
I honestly think it's definitely a gender-stereotyping thing. Just look at the toys marketed to boys: legos, puzzles, and video games. Girls get: dolls, books, and colors. The vast majority of presents for DD has been clothes/books/dolls. Even if we mention often that she loves puzzles and legos she never given any.
FWIW, I was IDed early on as a "math" kid but I think it wasn't a big leap for my family since my mom's side of the family are almost all in math/science careers. However, in the absence of that I could certainly see how a girl good at math could be missed. I've often seen that there is a stereotype that gifted children must be early readers/early speaker and a math girl might miss that boat. However, people generally believe boys develop latter so parents might be less hesitant to ID a boy who wasn't an early reader/early speaker simply because of his gender.
Another thing too... in my high school the girls that got the most notice for intelligence were always the girls that were good at language arts. They tended to be more verbal in class and more noticeable to teachers. My math/science classes all had male teachers and two, specifically, were really bad about being chummy with the guys (both actually happened to be coaches too).
