Working Paper: NBER ID: w15430
Authors: Roland G. Fryer Jr.; Steven D. Levitt
Abstract: We document and analyze the emergence of a substantial gender gap in mathematics in the early years of schooling using a large, recent, and nationally representative panel of children in the United States. There are no mean differences between boys and girls upon entry to school, but girls lose more than two-tenths of a standard deviation relative to boys over the first six years of school. The ground lost by girls relative to boys is roughly half as large as the black-white test score gap that appears over these same ages. We document the presence of this gender math gap across every strata of society. We explore a wide range of possible explanations in the U.S. data, including less investment by girls in math, low parental expectations, and biased tests, but find little support for any of these theories. Moving to cross-country comparisons, we find that earlier results linking the gender gap in math to measures of gender equality are sensitive to the inclusion of Muslim countries, where in spite of women's low status, there is little or no gender gap in math.
Keywords: gender gap; mathematics; education; ECLS-K
JEL Codes: I20
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| gender gap in mathematics at entry to school (I24) | gender gap in mathematics at end of fifth grade (I24) |
| parental expectations (J13) | gender gap in mathematics (J16) |
| societal factors (P23) | gender gap in mathematics (J16) |
| family structure and maternal education (J12) | gender gap in mathematics (J16) |