5 ms·

1. 70 percent more girls than boys had strong math and verbal skills; 2. Boys were more than twice as likely as girls to have strong math skills but not strong

1. 70 percent more girls than boys had strong math and verbal skills; 2. Boys were more than twice as likely as girls to have strong math skills but not strong verbal skills. No surprise on the 1st; I recognize that women can do/be anything they want in this world. But I wonder if the 2nd stat is explained mostly by the fact that MORE men are strong at math (not being a chauvinist pig; just running with stereotype)...or are the two genders equally represented among Math Elite and girls twice as likely to have strong verbal skills?

tnecniv 9y ago
> or are the two genders equally represented among Math Elite and girls twice as likely to have strong verbal skills? Going straight by the numbers, it seems like the former. Assuming you define math elite to be PhDs holders, this AMS study from 2005 [1] (a little old, I know), says that 30% of math PhDs are awarded to women. Societal factors could also be at play, obviously. [1] http://www.ams.org/profession/data/cbms-survey/chapter4.pdf http://www.ams.org/profession/data/cbms-survey/chapter4.pdf
SamReidHughes 9y ago
It really depends how you define "strong." But boys outnumber girls over 2:1 in getting 800 on the math SAT, while it's something like 1:1.2 on the verbal.