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Societal inequalities amplify gender gaps in math

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Breda

    (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Elyes Jouini

    (CEREMADE - CEntre de REcherches en MAthématiques de la DEcision - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Clotilde Napp

    (CEREMADE - CEntre de REcherches en MAthématiques de la DEcision - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

While gender gaps in average math performance are now close to zero in developed countries, women are still strongly underrepresented among math high performers (1). This gender gap contributes to the underrepresentation of women in math and science in higher education and to their subsequent worse position in the labor market (2, 3). With the roles of nature and nurture (4–6) on gender performance gaps having been debated for more than a century, research in the 1990s and 2000s (7–9) suggested a cultural origin, relating gender gaps in math to measures of countries' gender inequality. However, with more recent studies (10–12) having shown that this relation is weak, today we have no clearly identified relationship between countries' socioeconomic or cultural environment and the gender gap in math. We relate below gender gaps in math to societal inequalities that are not directly related to gender. We find a strong and robust relationship and provide tests suggesting that it is causal: Countries that are generally more egalitarian, or that have institutions more conductive to equality, have a lower gender performance gap in math, suggesting that this gap is partly shaped by more general societal inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Breda & Elyes Jouini & Clotilde Napp, 2018. "Societal inequalities amplify gender gaps in math," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-01745438, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:pseptp:hal-01745438
    DOI: 10.1126/science.aar2307
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01745438v1
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    Cited by:

    1. Anghel, Brindusa & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria & Sanz-de-Galdeano, Anna, 2020. "Is the math gender gap associated with gender equality? Only in low-income countries," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Oberleiter, Sandra & Fries, Jonathan & Schock, Laura S. & Steininger, Benedikt & Pietschnig, Jakob, 2023. "Predicting cross-national sex differences in large-scale assessments of students' reading literacy, mathematics, and science achievement: Evidence from PIRLS and TIMSS," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Huber, Stefanie J. & Paule-Paludkiewicz, Hannah, 2024. "Gender norms and the gender gap in higher education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    4. Borgonovi, Francesca & Choi, Alvaro & Paccagnella, Marco, 2021. "The evolution of gender gaps in numeracy and literacy between childhood and young adulthood," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    5. Larissa Fuchs & Pia Pinger & Philipp Seegers, 2025. "Relative Grades and Gender Differences in STEM Enrollment," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2025_633, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    6. Cubel, María & Sanchez-Pages, Santiago, 2022. "Gender differences in equilibrium play and strategic sophistication variability," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 287-299.
    7. Maria Cubel & Santiago Sanchez-Pages, 2021. "Gazes and numbers: Two experiments in strategic sophistication and gender bias," Department of Economics Working Papers 78/21, University of Bath, Department of Economics.
    8. Alice Bertoletti & Marta Cannistrà & Melisa Diaz Lema & Chiara Masci & Anna Mergoni & Lidia Rossi & Mara Soncin, 2023. "The Determinants of Mathematics Achievement: A Gender Perspective Using Multilevel Random Forest," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, January.
    9. Giofrè, D. & Cornoldi, C. & Martini, A. & Toffalini, E., 2020. "A population level analysis of the gender gap in mathematics: Results on over 13 million children using the INVALSI dataset," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. Chunhan Huang & Junyun Shi & Xiaodong Zeng, 2023. "Personality Traits, Student-Teacher Relationships and Boys’ Academic Crisis in China: Evidence From the Least Developed Regions," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    11. Samantha Nix & Lara Perez-Felkner, 2019. "Difficulty Orientations, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity: An Intersectional Analysis of Pathways to STEM Degrees," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-29, January.
    12. Borgonovi, Francesca & Greiff, Samuel, 2020. "Societal level gender inequalities amplify gender gaps in problem solving more than in academic disciplines," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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