Even with the success of women’s lib prior to my childhood,  I always remember folks talking about how girls weren’t as good at math and science as boys were when I was growing up. Even if they’d follow their statement with “I don’t know if that’s true now,” it was obvious that a lot of people thought it was. It was always super frustrating - and even though I wasn’t that interested in math or science, it made me want to do better (and I did, I took honors classes all throughout junior high and high school).

Imagine my joy when I woke up today and saw in article in The New York Times with this headline :

Math Scores Show No Gap for Girls, Study Finds

The article then goes on to open with this paragraph:

Three years after the president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers, got into trouble for questioning women’s intrinsic aptitude for science and engineering and 16 years after the talking Barbie doll proclaimed that math class is tough a study paid for by the National Science Foundation has found that girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests. [NYTIMES]

Sweet vindication…

The article goes on to say:

Although boys in high school performed better than girls in math 20 years ago, the researchers found, that is no longer the case. The reason, they said, is simple: Girls used to take fewer advanced math courses than boys, but now they are taking just as many.

Now that enrollment in advanced math courses is equalized, we don’t see gender differences in test performance, said Marcia C. Linn of the University of California, Berkeley, a co-author of the study. But people are surprised by these findings, which suggests to me that the stereotypes are still there. [NYTIMES]

Well imagine that - given equal opportunity women do just as well as men.

Pretty crazy huh!?!?
takepart to take action with the National Organization for Women, and read on:

• Who’s better at math? Subtract gender
• Numbers show girls as good at math as boys
• Girls match boys on tests in math: study

*photo by dadadreams