It's the first day of primary school. After three years of preschool, all the little girls and boys are crowding into the playground, their big-boy schoolbags on their backs. At this point, their math skills are similar: they all count, read numbers, and recognize logical sequences, among other things.
But just four months later, the boys will have taken a significant lead over the girls. And a year later, when they enter CE1, this advance will have quadrupled, concludes a study carried out throughout France and published in the journal NatureA gender gap that is based not on a natural disposition of boys towards mathematics compared to girls, but on our gender stereotypes and our teaching methods.
2.65 million children, or all of the CP and CE1 pupils in France
“ Initially, I was researching the determinants of toddlers' learning in French and mathematics so I could target them and improve their overall level. That's when I realized that in math, the most important factor was gender.", says Pauline Martinot, a doctor specializing in nutrition and public health and first author of the study resulting from her neuroscience thesis.
The emergence of a gender gap in mathematics at the age of six has already been described in previous studies conducted on 2,000 to 16,000 children. But this new work is on a completely different scale, since it is based on language and mathematics tests carried out on all 2.65 million CP and CE1 pupils in France between 2018 and 2022!
From priority schools to private schools and Montessori schools, from the most disadvantaged to the most affluent families, all subgroups are represented in sufficient numbers for analyses of exceptional statistical robustness. And the results are surprising.
Read alsoMathematics: Why does the gap in level reverse in CP in favor of boys?
"The emergence of this gender gap is very brutal."
“ In a class of 20 students, in one year of first grade, boys and girls are separated by one place on average in the mathematics rankings, always in favor of boys. This is enormous.", comments Pauline Martinot. This gender gap is due as much to the overperformance of boys as to the underperformance of girls and is visible from the fourth month of school.
“ It cannot be innate because the appearance of this gender gap is very brutal, much faster than the cognitive development of human beings.", adds the researcher. Especially since previous studies have clearly established that in infants, all pre-mathematical skills – the sense of number and quantities – are equivalent in boys and girls.
School, a place where gender stereotypes are exacerbated
But is this sudden gender shift an effect of school or rather of age, social class, or the gender stereotypes to which students are exposed in their respective families? To answer this question, the researcher has several major assets in her data.
First, French students all start school the year they turn six, so that between a student born on December 31st and another born on the 1ster January of the following year, the ages are the same but one school year separates them. At the same age, oWe see that gender gaps in math are much more pronounced among children who have completed a year of school compared to those who have not yet started first grade. So there is really something going on in our way of teaching." concludes Pauline Martinot.
A second major asset confirms the weight of education in this difference in mathematical performance: the Covid-19 lockdown, which forced children to stay at home for two and a half months in 2020. Surprisingly, compared to other years spent at school, the gender gap in mathematical skills not only stopped widening, but even decreased a little among confined students. The result surprised us all because we often hear that gender stereotypes are more prevalent in families. But it's a fact: gender gaps are much smaller when we stay at home; it has an almost protective effect.", Pauline Martinot is surprised. School therefore seems to have an amplifying effect on this gender gap in mathematics.
Boys are more encouraged to compete and take risks
The family unit, however, is not exempt from responsibilities. Thus, counterintuitively, it is in families with a higher socioeconomic level that the level gap in favor of boys is greatest. It is found elsewhere, in Uruguay and the United States in particular.", quotes Pauline Martinot. " Gender stereotypes are thought to be more pronounced in these families, with more pressure on little girls to stay in line and not make mistakes, which increases their anxiety, whereas risks and logic will be encouraged in boys.“.
This is also a mechanism that generally affects the overperformance of boys and the underperformance of girls in mathematics. Entering school probably marks an exposure to mathematics with anxiety-inducing and timed exercises that favor little boys, who have been more encouraged to compete and take risks than little girls in the games and environment they have known from 0 to 6 years old." explains Pauline Martinot.
This overperformance of boys under pressure, and the anxiety leading to a mirrored underperformance in girls, is particularly visible in a math test called the "number line test." This exercise, which is the single greatest predictor of math skills, requires knowing how to place a number on an ungraduated line running from 0 to 10. This is a new exercise and there is a high risk of making mistakes and therefore a high potential for anxiety, which would explain this gap between girls and boys.", explains Pauline Martinot. As proof, among the tests targeting language skills and which rather favor girls this time - but to a lesser extent than boys in mathematics - those which are dominated by boys are precisely the timed tests.
Adjusting teaching methods and arranging homeschooling
“ It is extremely encouraging to have put our finger on such specific things, because it opens up a range of solutions that have already been applied around the world.", assures Pauline Martinot. To combat the preconceived notion that girls are bad at math compared to boys, which is still very present among teachers, the team suggests teaching girls to manage their anxiety, questioning them as much as boys, valuing effort as much as results and showing them "role models", these examples of inspiring people with whom they can identify. The study also shows that the gender gap in mathematics is smaller when the top student in the class is a girl.
“ We know it works!", supports Pauline Martinot, whose work advocates the early implementation of these measures, before girls become too deeply absorbed by gender stereotypes that are unfavorable to them and fall too far behind in mathematics. Teachers themselves, the majority of whom are women, should also combat misconceptions about their own weaknesses in mathematics that they might attribute to their gender and pass on to their students. Finally, families also have a role to play. " Boys and girls alike should be encouraged to play construction and logic games, timed games and games that encourage risk-taking." concludes Pauline Martinot.
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