Posted by Helen on: 06.16.2008 /
Vital Statistics, a recent article in the Economist, discusses a study exploring the relationship between girls and boys math and reading ability and how much gender equality there is in their culture.
The study found that where there’s a high level of equality, girls are as good at math as boys (except for geometry).
TRADITION has it that boys are good at counting and girls are good at reading. So much so that Mattel once produced a talking Barbie doll whose stock of phrases included “Math class is tough!”
Although much is made of differences between the brains of adult males and females, the sources of these differences are a matter of controversy. Some people put forward cultural explanations and note, for example, that when girls are taught separately from boys they often do better in subjects such as maths than if classes are mixed. Others claim that the differences are rooted in biology, are there from birth, and exist because girls’ and boys’ brains have evolved to handle information in different ways.
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 remains.
The ‘reading gap’ refers to girls being better at reading than boys. Hence the article ends
In other words, girls may acquire an absolute advantage over boys as a result of equal treatment. This is something that society, more broadly, has not yet taken on board. Mattel may wish to take note that among Teen Talk Barbie’s 270 phrases concerning shopping, parties and clothes, at least one might usefully have been, “Dostoevsky rocks!”
Comment by: Jason Horton
1 06/16/08 9:13 AM | Comment Link |I think that part of this is a self fulfilling prophecy. Tell a girl that she’s no good at Maths and she’ll stop trying and end up less able than if you support her. Tell a boy that only girls read and you’ll end up with an illiterate lout or worse: an engineer.
Also have you noticed the great variety of books that appeal to teen and tween girls but not to boys? You have the Sleepover Club, Tracy Beaker and a whole range of scholastic books with girls on the cover. For boys you have very little except for the classics which are generally written for a slightly higher ability that a young teen or pre-teen can manage.
More books for boys might help to reduce that reading gap and less sexism in the classroom might help to keep girls interested in maths.
Comment by: Elizabeth Chapin
2 06/16/08 12:53 PM | Comment Link |Let’s hear it for gender equality!! It appears the link to the Economist article is broken, but I found it anyway. The article states,
Amazing how social status has such a profound influence. While America is making headway in the gender equality realm, we still have a ways to go. I have four daughters and will make my contribution to this effort!
One realm of inequality that really bugs me in America is religion - I can’t tell you how many times I get asked with incredulity what I plan to do with my seminary degree - as if women don’t belong in seminary!
Jason, while I don’t have boys, I did find an interesting blog where teen boys review teen books for boys. You might find it encouraging to know there are more books than just the classics that are grabbing guys attention. Boys Blogging Books.
I think it’s possible for people to be socialized to succeed at both. My husband is an engineer but he is also very well read, and I am a writer who speaks geek - I met my husband when I was doing technical writing! We are well matched and hope to provide a sense of gender equality to our girls so they can contribute to improvement in the social position of women in America ;-)
Comment by: Steve R
3 06/16/08 2:05 PM | Comment Link |Not sure what’s going on here. Two days ago my sister-in-law sends me a bunch of engineer jokes, most of which were designed to infer that we are a bunch of undersexed Trekkies. Now Jason is making cracks. I guess I’ll curl up with a Dilbert book and try to recover.
On the gender stuff, both our teen daughters get high marks in math but profess to hate it. I have often wondered if they have been socialized to dislike math (or claim to, at least).
Comment by: Jason Horton
4 06/16/08 3:46 PM | Comment Link |Thanks Elizabeth. My son is dyslexic so we have a great deal of trouble finding books that match both his ability to read and his level of interest. Most books of his ability are “too babyish” for him and most books that he likes are too difficult for him to read. Maybe the link will reveal some interesting choices.
Sorry Steve. If it helps I originally trained as an engineer so I feel qualified to mock myself. also we prefer to be called Trekkers rather than Trekkies. ;)
Comment by: Steve R
5 06/16/08 4:10 PM | Comment Link |No problem, Jason! I was just trying to figure out if God/the universe/the-powers-that-be were trying to tell me something (i.e., you’re a geek–get over it).
Comment by: joe
6 06/17/08 2:24 AM | Comment Link |How obvious is that?
Culture affects the education of women.
Pope toilets in Woods.
In our house, my wife does the mathematics (she is an academic statistician) and I do the reading of the Russian classics. Tolstoy is more difficult to keep up with than Dostoevsky I find.
Comment by: Helen
7 06/17/08 4:18 AM | Comment Link |Jason - that’s one reason the Harry Potter books have been so welcomed: because boys enjoy them. Girls too but as you said boys seem to lack good fiction more than girls. Having said that, the writing is not great: my children have noticed how JK Rowling disappointingly uses the same few adjectives over and over again. The plots are pretty good though (in my opinion).
And I agree it’s probably a self-fulfilling prophecy that girls aren’t good at math - but that IS culture, isn’t it? Telling girls what they are and aren’t good at rather than letting them find out for themselves. I noticed a huge difference between my two secondary (high) schools. At the single sex one girls did great at maths (math) and science. At the mixed one those were not ‘girls subjects’ at my grade level (although it was better one year below me because the school intake was changing and that was a much stronger year for both sexes academically).
I’m sorry to hear about your son. I hope Elizabeth’s link helps you find more books that work for him.
Elizabeth, as you pointed out, we’re not all the way to full equality yet. Thanks for telling me the link was broken - I fixed it.
Steve R I wonder about whether girls are socialized not to like math also. My son likes it much more than my daughter but I’m hoping that’s an innate difference in their interests and abilities rather than socialization.
Dilbert is one of my favorite cartoons - it’s in my blog feed reader.
I thought the purpose of life was to realize one’s own weirdness, then get over it :)
Joe, I think it’s obvious too, but I think what the study was trying to establish is that the evidence does not support people who say women are innately worse at math. Since all the gap (except in geometry) is caused by culture.
My husband is awesome at math. He got over 100% in his finals at university (see Jason, sometimes that’s possible :)). I can never be as good at it as him (and my 15 year old son is turning out to be pretty amazing at it too) even though I worked hard at college because I wanted to get a first (in math(s)), and was pleased I managed that.
Comment by: joe
8 06/17/08 5:26 AM | Comment Link |Aggg.. I hate people who are good at mathematics. My wife got a prize for the best mark at University. Out of 12,000 students (or whatever it is).
She got first grades in every module she took. Sickening.
One interesting thing is that her memory is very short term - once she doesn’t need to know something any more, she just forgets it. Whereas my little brain retains useless information all the time.
Which means that I’m rather better at conversation with strangers than she is.
Comment by: Helen
9 06/17/08 6:40 AM | Comment Link |Joe, if you hate your wife as well as me for being good at maths then at least I’m in good company :) Wow, she got the best mark at her university? That’s awesome!!
I remember numbers fairly well; or used to. I forget lots of things I wish I remembered, especially recently. I can’t remember names of people I used to be with a lot and definitely knew back then, but I haven’t see them recently - until I suddenly run into them shopping, or wherever. The stress of “Oh no - WHAT is that person’s name!” seems to bind up the memory even more and make it absolutely impossible to remember the name.
Americans unfortunately use peoples ‘ names a lot so it’s embarrassing to forget them. In the UK it’s easier to get away with that since it’s not such a social faux pas if you don’t use someone’s name when talking with them.
Useless information definitely can be helpful for keeping casual conversation going :)
Comment by: joe
10 06/17/08 6:59 AM | Comment Link |Hate might have been a bit strong.
Anyway, I have the comfort of knowing that there are things my wife isn’t good at, which others don’t know about when they only see her doctorate and university job. Teeheehee.
Comment by: Helen
11 06/17/08 8:36 AM | Comment Link |Since you brought that up, I hate how my husband knows all the things I’m not good at! :)
Comment by: Jason Horton
12 06/17/08 2:37 PM | Comment Link |Helen, the JK Rowling plots are simple. I’m sorry to burst your bubble. Don’t get me wrong, I find them incredibly entertaining but the twists in the plot are transparent enough for a five year old to see through. Although Beth did enjoy the idea of getting a letter from Hogwarts for her 11th birthday a few years ago.
As long as they’re entertaining then it doesn’t really matter if I can predict the plot twist.
Comment by: Helen
13 06/17/08 4:37 PM | Comment Link |Jason, fair enough comment about the Harry Potter book plots. I think the setting is clever and original and entertaining. I like how they are largely a new twist on life at a UK boarding school. I love the small creative touches like the students taking Ordinary Wizarding Levels whereas I took O (Ordinary) Levels. I feel sorry for people who won’t get that because they aren’t from the UK.
(Did you know the US versions have different words in - they’ve been Americanized? Not just the title of book 1 but words within the books. They could have done a more comprehensive job of it; for example we found references to ’sweets’ in the US version which should have been changed to ‘candy’. We have both versions for fun (not of book 6 and 7 yet though since we haven’t been to England since 2004 - we’re going this summer so we can complete the collection)
Comment by: Elizabeth Chapin
14 06/18/08 8:20 AM | Comment Link |My girls have loved the Harry Potter books (let’s see, my two teenagers are re-reading them for the 5th or 6th time now - I’ve lost track ;-) and while they may not “get it” as far as the UK boarding school culture, it does expose them to a different culture even with all the Americanization.
On another note, even though many books are geared toward girls, we still see a lot of gender inequality in much of the story lines - like all those “Cinerella” stories, so I look for books for my girls that break up the stereotypical roles. Harry Potter does a bit of this, though I avoid books that put women up as superior - which sometimes happens in extreme reactions to gender inequality. I found a great series by an Australian author that has a nice balance of gender equality in the roles, it’s The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon. I’m awaiting the release of the next book in the series with great anticipation.
Comment by: Jason Horton
15 06/18/08 8:44 AM | Comment Link |Some interesting (for me) trivia for you. JK and Harry Potter share the same birthday with my eldest daughter.
She’s no witch though.