How do girls measure up to boys in Mathematics - Essay Example

Therefore, girl’s participation in higher or advance mathematics subjects were less which led to a conclusion that boys have higher scores. Nowadays, more girls opt to take advance mathematics which results to same performance level in state tests. Also, the female population taking up SAT tests increased over the years which can be a fertile ground in comparing the performance of boys against girls. According to the article in Discovery, the study revealed that there was not much difference in the performance in math tests between girls and boys ( 2008).

Furthermore, the National Science Foundation statistics revealed that : “….In 2004, women earned 58 percent of all bachelor’s degrees, 78 percent of bachelor’s degrees in psychology, 62 percent in biological sciences, 51 percent in chemistry, 46 percent in mathematics, 25 percent in computer sciences, 22 percent in physics, and 21 percent in engineering.” ( 2007 ) Therefore, females do not really underperform in Math and Sciences as compared to Males. However, there are factors that affect girls in learning Math and Sciences which will be discussed in this paper.

Cultural Orientation. Result of the study was the argument of professor and psychologist Janet Hyde that the cultural orientation are “ incredibly influential”( cited in Media Relations, 2008 ). This means that girls are often not expected by their own parents to excel in Mathematics or other masculine field such as Engineering and Sciences since these areas are only suited for the boys. No wonder, girls were stereotyped as underperformers when it comes to Mathematics. The importance of self- esteem plays a big role in encouraging girls to perform in Mathematics.

In 2007, a guide titled Encouraging Girls in Mathematics and Science was published by the National Center for Education Research. The main thrust of the