Cognitive Patterns of Gender Differences on Mathematics Admissions Tests

Gallagher, Ann; Levin, J; Cahalan, Cara

doi:10.1002/j.2333-8504.2002.tb01886.x

Cited by 38 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…However, in contrast to Gallagher et al (2000Gallagher et al ( , 2002, Harris and Carlton (1993) found that girls actually excel at abstract math items and that boys excel at applied items. Gallagher et al (2002) applied a similar approach in their analysis of the GRE-Q. They found that it is possible to manipulate the performance of males and females by changing the mix of question types and criticized the lack of a theory-driven basis for the SAT-M and GRE-Q tests (see pp.…”

Section: Aptitude Testsmentioning

confidence: 66%

Women's underrepresentation in science: Sociocultural and biological considerations.

Ceci

Williams

Barnett

2009

Psychological Bulletin

808

573

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The underrepresentation of women at the top of math-intensive fields is controversial, with competing claims of biological and sociocultural causation. The authors develop a framework to delineate possible causal pathways and evaluate evidence for each. Biological evidence is contradictory and inconclusive. Although cross-cultural and cross-cohort differences suggest a powerful effect of sociocultural context, evidence for specific factors is inconsistent and contradictory. Factors unique to underrepresentation in math-intensive fields include the following: (a) Math-proficient women disproportionately prefer careers in non-math-intensive fields and are more likely to leave math-intensive careers as they advance; (b) more men than women score in the extreme math-proficient range on gatekeeper tests, such as the SAT Mathematics and the Graduate Record Examinations Quantitative Reasoning sections; (c) women with high math competence are disproportionately more likely to have high verbal competence, allowing greater choice of professions; and (d) in some math-intensive fields, women with children are penalized in promotion rates. The evidence indicates that women's preferences, potentially representing both free and constrained choices, constitute the most powerful explanatory factor; a secondary factor is performance on gatekeeper tests, most likely resulting from sociocultural rather than biological causes.Keywords: sex differences, spatial ability, mathematics, family versus career trade-offs, women in science Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0014412.supp By 2001, women were earning 48% of bachelor's degrees (National Science Foundation, 2007) and 29% of PhD degrees (Hill & Johnson, 2004) in mathematics, representing enormous increases over the prior 30 years. Women's representation among editorial boards in science and awards panels similarly increased (Nelson & Brammer, 2008). These changes are evidence of the strength of cultural factors in determining such outcomes, because biology has not changed over this period. Despite this progress, women's representation among PhD degree holders has not coincided with proportional faculty appointments: Women earned 31.3% of chemistry PhD degrees between 1993 and 2003 but in 2002 were hired for only 21.5% of assistant professorships. Similar disparities exist for new faculty appointments in physics, engineering, and mathematics. In 1976 women represented only 7.5% of the faculty in physical sciences and less than 1% in engineering (Dearman & Plisko, 1979). By 2006 the percentage had increased to 16%-25%, but the hiring of assistant professors in these fields has not been proportional to female PhD pools. This hiring disparity extends beyond math-intensive fields.Even in less math-intensive fields, such as cellular and molecular biology, fields in which women obtain 46% of all PhD degrees, women disproportionately drop out at multiple points. The picture is the same across many science fields: Women are not being hired as assistant professors at the ra...

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Section: Aptitude Testsmentioning

confidence: 66%

Women's underrepresentation in science: Sociocultural and biological considerations.

Ceci

Williams

Barnett

2009

Psychological Bulletin

808

573

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The largest male advantage is found in math tasks that involve visuospatial abilities, with gender differences of 0.9 to 1.0 standard deviations. Casey et al (1995) show that, when questions which rely on visuospatial abilities are statistically removed from the math SAT, the sex difference in scores disappears; Gallagher and DeLisi (1994) and Gallagher et al (2002) find a similar pattern for the Quantitative Reasoning section of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). 24 For example, in 2 nd grade, we gave children an unmarked number line with the values 0 and 50 on each end, and asked them to place five randomly generated numbers between 1 and 49 on this line.…”

Section: B Differences In the Distribution Of Test Scoresmentioning

confidence: 96%

Where the Girls Are Not: Households, Teachers, and the Gender Gap in Early Math Achievement

Schady¹,

Carneiro²,

Cruz-Aguayo³

2017

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work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-IGO BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ legalcode) and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose, as provided below. No derivative work is allowed.Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC-IGO license.Following a peer review process, and with previous written consent by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a revised version of this work may also be reproduced in any academic journal, including those indexed by the American Economic Association's EconLit, provided that the IDB is credited and that the author(s) receive no income from the publication. Therefore, the restriction to receive income from such publication shall only extend to the publication's author(s). With regard to such restriction, in case of any inconsistency between the Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license and these statements, the latter shall prevail.Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license. 2 AbstractWe study the determinants of math achievement among children in early elementary school using data from a unique experiment. We find steep socioeconomic gradients and a substantial boy-girl gap in math test scores. However, among children of mothers with university education, there is no difference in the math achievement of girls and boys, which suggests that maternal education specifically, and home environments generally, are important. There is no evidence that teacher quality affects the boy-girl differences in early test scores, regardless of whether we measure quality on the basis of classroom effects, teacher effects, or the observed interactions between teachers and children. JEL classification: I21

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“…The social significance of the documented gender disparities in achievement remains unclear, as these disparities are shown to have limited power to explain those in STEM participation (Xie & Shauman 2003; Weinberger 2005). Commonly used standardized tests may be poor instruments for measuring gender differences in STEM aptitude (Gallagher et al 2002; Halpern 2002), since research suggests that item content may bias the scores (Chipman 2005; Spelke 2005), and that they have limited power to predict actual task performance and STEM achievement for girls (Schmidt 2011). Recent research also highlights the need to estimate the potential influence of math or science achievement in relation to achievement in other domains (Lubinski & Benbow 2006; Riegle-Crumb et al 2012; Wang et al 2013).…”

Section: Gender and Stem Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

STEM Education

2015

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Improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, especially for traditionally disadvantaged groups, is widely recognized as pivotal to the U.S.’s long-term economic growth and security. In this article, we review and discuss current research on STEM education in the U.S., drawing on recent research in sociology and related fields. The reviewed literature shows that different social factors affect the two major components of STEM education attainment: (1) attainment of education in general, and (2) attainment of STEM education relative to non-STEM education conditional on educational attainment. Cognitive and social psychological characteristics matter for both major components, as do structural influences at the neighborhood, school, and broader cultural levels. However, while commonly used measures of socioeconomic status (SES) predict the attainment of general education, social psychological factors are more important influences on participation and achievement in STEM versus non-STEM education. Domestically, disparities by family SES, race, and gender persist in STEM education. Internationally, American students lag behind those in some countries with less economic resources. Explanations for group disparities within the U.S. and the mediocre international ranking of US student performance require more research, a task that is best accomplished through interdisciplinary approaches.

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Cognitive Patterns of Gender Differences on Mathematics Admissions Tests

Cited by 38 publications

References 9 publications

Women's underrepresentation in science: Sociocultural and biological considerations.

Women's underrepresentation in science: Sociocultural and biological considerations.

Where the Girls Are Not: Households, Teachers, and the Gender Gap in Early Math Achievement

STEM Education

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