It is often observed that girls do not perform as well as boys
in mathematics. This difference is often overstated and it’s
cause is often highly debated. Many people have suggested that
the basis for this difference is essentially biological. It is
now well established that a society’s attitude toward gender
will significantly affect the performance of its girls in
mathematics. That was the result of a study described in the May
30, 2008 edition of Science (available only to subscribers
online) in an article called “Culture, Gender and Math.” That
study attempted to analyze the cause of the “gender gap” (the
difference between the scores of boys and girls) in mathematics.
The conclusion of this comprehensive study is that “Social
conditioning and gender biased environments can have a very
large effect on test performance.” The study examined cultural
attitudes regarding women in various countries and compared them
to math achievements of girls in those same countries. It found
that the gender gap in math ten