Education, Skills and Learning

Study of 1.6 million grades shows little gender difference in maths and science at school

An empty classroom is seen at a public school during a national strike to demand better salaries in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 3, 2018. REUTERS/Martin Acosta - RC1D5E961000

Image: REUTERS/Martin Acosta

Rose O'Dea
PhD Candidate in Biology, UNSW
Shinichi Nakagawa
Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology, UNSW
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Education, Skills and Learning

Two distributions – red and blue – show the same mean indicated by the peak of the curves. But the variability of the distribution is indicated by the width of each curve, with the red and blue horizontal lines showing the range of values for 95% of each population. The blue distribution is wider, which produces more outliers at the top and bottom of the distribution.
Image: Rose O’Dea, Author provided
Have you read?
The results of our analyses of gender differences in average grades (green) and variability in grades (purple). The green points to the right of the dashed vertical line indicate higher average grades for girls, and purple points to the left indicate lower variability in grades for girls. The bottom axis shows the percentage difference between girls and boys.
Image: Rose O’Dea, Author provided
Gender distribution of student completions and academic staff in STEM fields (excluding Medical Sciences and Health). Source: Higher Education Research Data, 2014.
Image: Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE)
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Education, Skills and LearningGender Inequality
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