How Girls Fall Behind in Math

A new Nature article claims to have resolved a nature-nuture debate.

When do girls fall behind in maths? Gigantic study pinpoints the moment

Analysis of almost three million children captures when ‘mathematical gender gap’ first emerges and could help focus efforts to stop girls from falling behind. ...

Boys and girls receive similar maths scores at the start of school, but boys pull ahead of girls after just four months (see ‘Watch the mathematics gender gap emerge’). A more dramatic gap in mathematical performance emerges after 12 months of school, according to the analysis, published on 11 June in Nature1.

“This paper suggests that the gender inequalities in children’s maths performance aren’t innate or inevitable,” says psychologist Jillian Lauer at the University of Cambridge, UK. “If we want to stop girls from falling behind, we need to focus on their early experiences at school.”

The research found that boys and girls get to first grade being equally able to count, but boys pull ahead when asked to do problems like 5+6=11. The poor girls never catch up.

This is ridiculous. Grade schools are much more adapted to teaching girls than boys. I do not think that girls are falling behind because first grade teachers are not teaching them to add well.

I also don't think first grade addition has much to do with long term math abilities.

I met the science writer of this story a long time ago. She might even remember me, even though it has been maybe 25 years. I don't blame her for this. She is just writing up the published research that the Nature editors accepted. I am happy to see she is a successful science writer.

This research is only appearing in the leading British science journal because of the leftist egalitarian implication. Nature even has an editorial:

Close the mathematics gender gap: huge study prompts urgent call to action ...

‘Boys are better at maths’. It’s a stereotype that’s still pervasive among many children, teachers and parents. But is there any truth to it? A study of millions of schoolchildren in France reveals that boys pull ahead of girls in mathematics early, during the first year of school, but suggests that this ‘gender gap’ is not inevitable ...

The lack of differences in achievement at the start of school is an indication that boys have no inherent advantages when it comes to raw ability or interest. That, in turn, indicates that the gap could be reduced, or even erased, if children’s early environment at school and at home is changed. By pinpointing when girls start to fall behind boys, this study should help to focus further research into interventions that could reduce the gap.

Such interventions are needed. Women in many countries are less likely than men to study maths, ...

The latest study is a wake-up call for parents and carers, educators and scientists. The next step is for researchers to develop various interventions and measure their impact before and during the first year of school. For instance, do girls in classes taught by teachers who provide support to reduce anxiety around maths perform better than girls who don’t receive such support?

No, this is crazy stuff. First grade schooling is already girl-oriented. First grade girls do not have math anxiety. It is foolish to even think that this is a problem to be solved. From Wikipedia:

The gender-equality paradox is the finding that various gender differences in personality and occupational choice are larger in more gender equal countries.

The better you teach math, the more you will find performance differences. Face reality.