Gender Similarities Characterize Math Performance Janet Hyde,
Sara Lindberg, Marcia Linn, Amy Ellis, Caroline Williams
National Science Foundation That boys are the math whizzes and
girls suffer acute equation phobia (hence Barbie: "Math class is
tough!") is a common stereotype. It's fueled by evidence that
shows that high-school girls take fewer math and science courses
than boys, a difference that also serves to explain why boys
have historically performed better on standardized math tests in
high school. But new findings from a report out of the
Universities of Wisconsin and California (Berkeley) are doing
their part (along with the other, similar findings that preceded
them) to undermine the gender typecasting. Researchers studied
achievement data from over 7 million students and found that,
for grades 2 to 11, there's no longer a difference between the
math performance of boys and girls. Females are still
underrepresented in the highest levels of STEM (science,
technology, engineering, math) careers, tho