The education gender gap

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The education gender gap

It seems like we cover a new study showing girls aren't really worse than boys at [insert male-dominated discipline here] about every other day, and often enough, the discipline in question is math or science. So I almost zoomed right past this article, "Boys Not Better at Math Than Girls, Study Finds," in my morning reading, assuming it would be snoozeworthy. Good thing I didn't, because this study of the educational gender gap, led by professor Paola Sapienza of Northwestern University, actually says something interesting and (to me, anyway) new.

Globally, girls average 10.5 points lower than boys on math tests -- but the picture gets more complicated when you look at things locally. In Sweden, about the closest thing we've got to a "gender-equal society," the difference between boys' and girls' scores is negligible. In Turkey, not such a gender-equal society, the average difference is 23 points. This study, which examined the test scores of 276,000 children in 40 countries, found that this pattern held around the world. "Average girls' scores improved as equality improved and the number of girls reaching the highest levels of performance also increased." In other words, it turns out more equality leads to ... more equality. Go figure.

When it comes to reading, though, girls start to get more equal than others. "The research also found a striking gender gap in reading skills. In every country girls perform better than boys in reading but in countries that treat both sexes equally, girls do even better." The global average difference is 32.7 points. In Iceland, another country noteworthy for its gender equality, girls' average scores were 61 points higher than boys. Sixty-one points!

The article doesn't say how old the children in question were, so it could be a case of girls developing verbal skills faster than boys; perhaps the difference more or less evens out later in life. But I'm still not sure how I feel about the fact that the headline here is about girls and math, in light of those stunning numbers. Naturally, part of me thinks, "You see? Girls will not only keep up but excel if you treat them equally!" But another part of me thinks that if societal gender equality leads to boys being that far behind at something as important as reading, at some point, it ceases to be equality. (Contrary to feminist caricatures, most of us aren't actually looking for total world domination.)

I'm really not sure how you fix that problem -- I only know that treating girls like crap to keep things even is not an option, no matter how well it has worked in the past. I'm still pretty psyched about those math scores, thank you very much.

-- Kate Harding


http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/05/30/math/

Also in the Guardian: http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools ... 83,00.html

there are some that even say the balance has tipped towards girls (at that age, women, oui?...
in terms of recruitment, etc. That they're becoming majorities in many universities, which could skew the odds...

but I think women can do anything they set their mind to. All they need is the will...

Sweden and Iceland, girls read where there are long dark winters, and as both are Socialist, not much incentive for boys to work hard, get a good job, and pay a lot more taxes.

Here in the USA, girls get higher grades, more go to college, and the number of grads exceeds males, who they want to support them. That ends equality.

One of the big stories here is women who have to marry down, for there are not enough educational equals for them.

With their education advantage, they prove themselves in what were male fields, then wonder why there are no males left in those fields. Why they cannot find a male with an income large enough to support them.

Young and not so young professional women have an Aspie size problem finding anyone to date.

The problem is much worse for women of color.

Thirty years of tearing down the white male power structure, throwing men of color in jail for long terms, and promoting a gender equality where the results are the men got trashed in the process.

Men marry down, women marry up, so the men still find wives.

The Feminist, You've come a long way baby, movement missed the point that we are in this together.

They were in such a hurry they would take the job for less pay, and still complain men were paid more. Men were fired, more women hired, at less pay, problem solved.

So buy me a house, an SUV, some cute outfits, and I will stay home and be a house husband.

Affirmitive Action and gender preferances do not lead to equality. It produces a lot of women who are over educated for the available jobs, and men.

Why with all the advantages are women so rare in Computers, Science, Math, Engineering, Technology, it does take hard work, did it cut into their partying?

While women took over the corporate, government, and law offices, old money, most of the advances have been in Bob the Builder skills, Computers, chips, code.

Could it be the reality that boys build models, think in 3-D, and are creative in a way that girls are not?

Girls are better students, get higher grades, fill upper level education slots, do have higher reading and verbal skills, and can do math. They make up the majority of the student body, and one to one, have a higher graduation rate.

University graduations are up, but male education is down.

I dont think males see a point to education any more. Other than for their hobbies. The days of coat and tie and being the bread winner are over. Now it is being some unsatifiable woman's first, seconed, or third husband, and being taken to the cleaners by all of them.

The half life of marriage is eighteen months. It is just so girls will have someone to complain to, and a place to shop for better from.

Paola Sapienza sounds like a species of ape in Italian.

I have never found a woman with an interest in what I do, only in how much I make from it.

Before about a hundred years ago school was where the local children learned the Three R's.

Four years was considered enough learning, Reading, Writing, and Cyphering.

From that base they could learn anything they wanted, and some very good writers came from the time. Carpenters and Blacksmiths wrote well, conveyed information, and drew well.

After schooling came learning a trade, children worked at gaining marketable skills. It was expected that everyone should grow up with a trade, Cooper, Farrier, Smith, Farmer, even if they had other ambitions, higher learning. They should be able to support themselves by honest work.

The factory era put adults into factories, and children into pre factories, where both ran on the same hours. Schooling was still four years, with a stronger conditioning to being a worker, so when they went into someone else's mine or mill at nine, they would be an obedient worker.

The goal now shifted from a base of knowledge to learn from, to being prepared for long hours and low pay under someone else's command.

Education was extended, because of Child Labor Laws, but the goal remained the same. Education till fourteen, the new age of factory hands, was still the three R's, but with more social conditioning added.

The idea of most finishing High School did not happen till the Great Depression caused unemployment.
A new and educated class was considered a danger, by the people who had been exploiting them. They had read the Constitution!. Some wondered aloud why in such a rich land there were so many poor.

They spoke their concerns to Government, and a New Deal was called for. WPA, CCC, to create jobs, with good working conditions and wages, Social Security, so widows, orphans, and the old would not starve to death, and when it came to a call for a fairer tax system, everyone was drafted for WWII.

1/2 of 1% own 98%, and a 3% tax on assets would be fair to everyone.

After warring on evil German and Japanese Capitalist, our allies, the Communists and Socialists suddenly became the new enemy, and the cry of Pinko went over the land. Anyone who wanted to tax the assets of Owners, was a Red Rat, and J. Edgar Hoover would take care of them.

The economy of the 50's was good, most just wanted to live, and on $32.50 a week could have a car, house, wife, non-working, and kids.

There was still a military stamp on the land, crew cuts and the gray flannel suit, white shirt and black tie.

When us War Babies came up, so did a new term, Juvenile Delinquint, our lack of conformity made us a medical problem, must be something wrong with them, which was to be treated by the Police. We were treated as the enemy within.

We did see that while no longer directly owned, Blacks were still slaves, and labor gangs were brought in from Mexico so growers did not have to pay Americans the now $46.50 a week.

We were also going for higher education, instead of begging owners to work cheaper than Mexicans. We were an ungratful lot, Un-American! The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did get passed, but in punishment and for social control, my generation got taught to fight Communism in Viet Nam. 65,000 dead, a Police State at home, and them Vietnamese make good tennis shoes now, still Communist, just like the Arch Enemy, the ChiCom, where Real Americans have sent all our factories.

Education was to serve the interests of the Owners of the State. It was a place to learn to be an American, for Jesus, with Football. The Cold War was invented as a cover story. Anyone who thought of a flat tax on assets with no deductions was aiding and abbeting the enemy, and if the Football team did not take care of the problem, the Police would.

Proper White Christians who belived in America would be educated and placed in all the positions of power. The rest of us would be driven into the underclass.

Many chose to not be driven out, but to drop out, and and the computer revolution did not come from Academia, as it was not mentioned in the Bible, or from IBM, but from Un American drop outs and misfits, just like the ones who wrote the Constitution.

The University became a social training ground, everything is equal to everything, under our God. The point of education was conditioning people to behave for the owners.

It became a place to apply the Religion of Psychology, CBT, for by telling all the students the same lies over and over, they would come to believe them. Most bought it. Anyone who belives in themselves is a Nazi, anyone who is comfortable with their gender is a Homophobe.

A University education teaches less about learning, how to learn, love of learning, than four years of the Three R's did a hundred years ago, or a High School education taught when it was about education only.

I have heard the story from many recent graduates, I had a job for $8.50 and hour, spent four years getting a Degree, now I am a University Graduate, and make $8.50 an hour.

What they learned. A person cannot start a business, they were all founded by God, and given to the most faithful. You will hate Islam when the Government tells you to. Goverement rules you for the Owners chosen by God. Obey or be punished.

The purpose of education is to get you to accept this truth.

They have destroyed Education, the Currency, the Means of Production, now hidden in China, safe from us, the Net Worth of my generation, saddled the future with huge debts, and no means of paying them, and there are three abortion era babies to pay the Social Security of each of the 40,000,000 of my generation who are about to retire.

For that to work all the abortion babies have to be making $85,000 a year. To pay the National Debt and support the Christian Police State, they have to make $200,000. Taxes have to go up. As equality equals slavery, and the War Babies are the only group with a culture, and these numbers do not work even with The New Math, we will simply have to each pick three or four slaves to raise our food.

It is seasonal work, you get to eat too, and the only way out of this debt is to make the money worthless. All slaves can be equal.

They call it Diversity.

there's always two sides. I've just heard of the book, but some woman (with sons) did some research and wrote The War Against Boys (how good it is, I dunno... about what she considered 'preferential' treatment steering women towards college, and expecting boys to just wing it.

I leave the above for your consideration...