This paper describes an Israeli national-level research examining the extent to which admissions of elementary school students to the gifted programmes based on standardised tests are gender-fair. In the research, the gifted students consisted of 275 boys, 128 girls, and additional 80 girls who were admitted to the gifted programme through affirmative action (AA). To assess these young students' scientific thinking skills, also referred to as science practices, open-ended questions of case-based questionnaires were developed. The investigated scientific thinking skills were question posing, explanation, graphing, inquiry, and metacognition. Analysis of the students' responses revealed that gifted girls who entered the programmes through AA performed at the same level as the other gifted students. We found significant differences between the three research groups in question posing and graphing skills. We suggest increasing gender-fairness by revising the standard national testing system to include case-based narratives followed by open-ended questions that assess gifted students' scientific thinking skills. This may diminish the gender inequity expressed by the different number of girls and boys accepted to the gifted programmes. We show that open-ended tools for analysing students' scientific thinking might better serve both research and practice by identifying gifted girls and boys equally well.

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Despite the global decline in the number of girls who study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects, in Israel, gender differences of physics students are especially worrying. Although girls and boys in junior high school reach similar achievements in physics, the number of girls who study physics in high school is declining. However, an interesting picture emerges when we compare the Arab and Jewish sectors: Girls account for 30% of all high school students who study physics in the Jewish sector, compared to almost 60% in the Arab sector. Interviews with Arab high school students in an advanced physics program indicate that although girls face internal and external obstacles in patriarchic Arab society, they transform these obstacles into factors that motivate them to greater achievements, in order to gain self-confidence and a more stable, promising economic future in their society. These findings challenge conventional theories that explain the gender gap in STEM subjects.

In order to reach gender equity in the gifted population, an affirmative action policy was instituted in Israel to increase the number of girls identified as gifted. The purpose of this study was to compare the self-efficacy beliefs of girls in the top 1.5% (gifted girls (GG)) with those of girls in the top 3% (GG in affirmative action). It was found that girls in the top 3% have higher social and mathematical self-efficacy beliefs than girls in the top 1.5% do. The findings support the literature regarding the level of giftedness as a risk factor for the social adjustment of GG. The surprising finding in the mathematical field is explained by a stronger conflict that exists among GG concerning excellence in a traditional male field. The current study contributes new insights into the emotional aspects accompanying giftedness.