An Empirical Analysis of the Gender Gap in Mathematics

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fryer, Roland G., Jr.; Levitt, Steven D.
• 署名单位: Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.2.2.210
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 210-240
• 关键词: sex-differences; single-sex; Stereotype threat; evaluative feedback; reasoning ability; spatial ability; math; achievement; performance; attitudes

摘要

We document and analyze the emergence of a substantial gender gap in mathematics in the early years of schooling using a large, recent, and nationally representative panel of US children. There are no mean differences between boys and girls upon entry to school, but girls lose more than two-tenths of a standard deviation relative to boys over the first six years of school. The ground lost by girls relative to boys is roughly half as large as the black-white test score gap that appears over these same ages. We document the presence of this gender math gap across every strata of society. We explore a wide range of possible explanations in the data, including less investment by girls in math, low parental expectations, and biased tests, but find little support for these theories. Moving to cross-country comparisons, we find earlier results linking the gender gap in math to measures of gender equality are sensitive to the inclusion of Muslim countries, where, in spite of women's low status, there is little or no gender gap in math. (JEL I23, J26)