For far to long the stereotype that girls are bad at maths has existed. It has been said they just don't have a scientific mind, that they should stick to English and softer subjects and that boys are better at 'harder' subjects. Well recent reports show that not only are girls as capable in that subject field as men, but that they're actually BETTER than them. American economist Paola Sapienza says the reason for girls perceived failure in Maths comes form sexual discrimination in the classroom.
"The math gender gap can be eliminated, and it is indeed eliminated in some countries," says Sapienza. "Our research indicates that in more gender equal societies, girls will gain an absolute advantage relative to boys."
They've worked this out by looking at the male/female results in different countries and then comparing the results to how sexually equal the country is. They use the GGI (which stands for Gender Gap Index), to look at things like how much support working mums get and the proportion of women who work in politics.
It was noted that In Iceland girls were beating boys by a small margin, and this relates to the high percentage of independent women in the country. However, comparing this to the highly sexist Turkey, women were considerably lagging behind the men in mathematical areas, showing that cultural influence can really affect how well people do. The countries that rated highest for women in Maths were Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland, so any aspiring scientists might want to move there!
It's interesting to see how much culture can affect results, but till society is less prejudiced I fear that women will still be missing out in the Maths field.