Large study shows females are equal to males in math skills

The mathematical skills of boys and girls, as well as men and women, are substantially equal, according to a new examination of existing studies in the current online edition of journal Psychological Bulletin. One portion of the new study looked systematically at 242 articles that assessed the math skills of 1,286,350 people, says chief author Janet Hyde , a professor of psychology and women's studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These studies, all published in English between 1990 and 2007, looked at people from grade school to college and beyond. A second portion of the new study examined the results of several large, long-term scientific studies, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress. In both cases, Hyde says, the difference between the two sexes was so close as to be meaningless. Sara Lindberg , now a postdoctoral fellow in women's health at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health , was the primary author of the meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin. The idea that both genders have equal math abilities is widely accepted among social scientists, Hyde adds, but word has been slow to reach teachers and parents, who can play a negative role by guiding girls away from math-heavy sciences and engineering.