Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research Girls as good as boys in math - research article

Interesting! Thanks, you two! I always take the so-called scientific analysis that I read in newspapers and magazines with a grain of salt. It's good to get a little more detail.

Yes, I missed the "average" word they snuck in there.

That describes me--BS in Engineering and MA in History. And here I thought I was special.

You are!

I must be "special" too. BS in computer science/math minor and BA in history/secondary education. LOL!!!!

Thanks, Kriston.

It is good to have company, EandCmom. I always get the strangest looks from people when they find out I was an engineer and an historian. Now that I have learned more about giftedness it does not seem quite so illogical. I see myself going into teaching eventually. I hope my experience will give me a good multidisciplinary approach.

I like people with diverse interests. It makes conversations with them more fun.

BaseballDad brought up a very good point. At High school level or even AP level, girls match up with boys very well. They are probably do slightly better in such classes as AP Calculas, AP statistics in most schools.

But at more elite level, boys still rule. If you go to any state or national level math competition, you will notice the absense of girls at top 10. No amount of sugar coating can hide that.

I just check the statistics of AMC 12 (a test that many high school boys and girls take). Doing well in AMC 12 is first step towards Math Olympiad. AMC webside lists average AMC 12 score is 60.8 for girls and 69.3 for boys in 2008. That difference is pretty significant. In addition, the gap did not close in last 5 years.

My younger D is in this year's PROMYS program (a pretty elite math camp by Boston U) where they spend 6 weeks stuying number theory. The boy to girl ratio there is 3 to 1. Out of 18 girls there, some 15 are asians and rest are white people.

Don't get me wrong, I root for girls (I have two daughters). It is great news that girls are closing the gap (at least at lower level), but it is bottle half empty or half full thing. In my opinion, girls still have a long way to go to catch up in Math.

I guess the question is weather this is a result of innate ability or of social expectations and biases. Girls are not expected to be good in math and even when they are there is pressure for them to hide it.

I don't think the gap will close until social expectations/pressures change.

Yes, I personally don't take too well to the sentence "No amount of sugar coating can hide that." The issue isn't sugar coating. It's the potential for societal bias against girls.

If all things were equal, then you might be able to use phrases like that. But all things aren't equal. We simply don't know what girls are capable of doing in math. We do know that the discrepancies aren't as big as we were led to believe. That's important.

It's also important to remember that any analysis of trends has NOTHING to do with the individual abilities of individual girls. Trends are often used to discourage individual girls from pursuing careers in math or science, and that's a shame.

It's like saying no woman can be a bus driver because the average woman is physically weaker than the average man. Well, test the individual person's strength if strength is relevant to the job of driving a bus. But don't use trends and averages as law. I think that's what has been happening to girls in math and science.