Vitória and João studied together during elementary school 2 and high school in a school in the interior of São Paulo. Both were excellent students and, in high school, took turns the highest grades in the class. In the last year, they decided to provide for courses linked to mathematics. João reached the minimum grade for the second phase with time off, which did not happen with victory. After the disappointment, Vitória chose to study at a college in the interior and gave up the dream of being a student at USP (University of São Paulo), while John managed to move to the second phase and graduated economist.
This is an anecdotal case, but illustrates a situation that can occur with several girls. They are excellent students, but in competitions that have great weight, such as entrance exams or, they end up performing lower than that observed during the school period or are more likely to. Some studies show that this difference in attitudes between boys and girls tends to be higher the greater the weight (importance) of evaluation.
In the case of math Olympics, female participation is lower than male and, as the steps advance, this proportion is further reduced. The girls give up as the competition becomes fierce. What happens could they explain these differences?
Many scientists investigate whether these differences would be explained by creation (experiences and socialization) or innate biological characteristics. Some authors suggest that mathematics assessments, which typically require “right or wrong” answers, combined with factors such as the weight of the test and the type of competition, may have more negative impacts on female performance. There are studies that show that girls perform better performance when they compete with each other than when they compete in mixed groups, especially when the proportion of girls is much smaller than that of boys. These results suggest that such differences are more linked to creation than nature.
Ellison and Swanson (2023), in the article “Dynamics of the Gender Gap in High Math Achievement”, investigate the reasons why there is an increase in performance difference between boys and girls throughout school life, among the best in mathematics, as well as increasing girls withdrawal in math Olympics in the United States. The results suggest that the difference between them in the 9th grade contributes to explain the increase of this difference during high school.
This difference is also observed in Brazil: according to Pisa data (2022), the gender difference among the best Brazilian students in the math test is 22 points. Another point raised by the authors is that when students get a grade very close to the minimum, but insufficient to advance to the next phase of the competition, there is an increase in the likelihood of withdrawal in future competitions, this trend being more pronounced among girls.
All this dynamic, according to the authors, can help explain the lower female representativeness in the areas of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). In this context, it is necessary to act on attitude differences in relation to competition, the standards of withdrawal and the responses to frustration, especially among girls.
A possible way to reduce this disparity would be to separate the math Olympics by gender, a method that seems to be effective in improving girls’ performance in competitions, reducing withdrawal and empowering them by appearing at the top of distribution, thus contributing to the future increase in their participation in STEM areas.
Gift Link: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release seven free hits from any link per day. Just click on F Blue below.
