IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0039904.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender, Culture, and Sex-Typed Cognitive Abilities

Author

Listed:
  • David Reilly

Abstract

Although gender differences in cognitive abilities are frequently reported, the magnitude of these differences and whether they hold practical significance in the educational outcomes of boys and girls is highly debated. Furthermore, when gender gaps in reading, mathematics and science literacy are reported they are often attributed to innate, biological differences rather than social and cultural factors. Cross-cultural evidence may contribute to this debate, and this study reports national gender differences in reading, mathematics and science literacy from 65 nations participating in the 2009 round of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Consistently across all nations, girls outperform boys in reading literacy, d = −.44. Boys outperform girls in mathematics in the USA, d = .22 and across OECD nations, d = .13. For science literacy, while the USA showed the largest gender difference across all OECD nations, d = .14, gender differences across OECD nations were non-significant, and a small female advantage was found for non-OECD nations, d = −.09. Across all three domains, these differences were more pronounced at both tails of the distribution for low- and high-achievers. Considerable cross-cultural variability was also observed, and national gender differences were correlated with gender equity measures, economic prosperity, and Hofstede’s cultural dimension of power distance. Educational and societal implications of such gender gaps are addressed, as well as the mechanisms by which gender differences in cognitive abilities are culturally mediated.

Suggested Citation

  • David Reilly, 2012. "Gender, Culture, and Sex-Typed Cognitive Abilities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-16, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0039904
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039904
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0039904
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0039904&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0039904?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Geske Dijkstra & Lucia Hanmer, 2000. "Measuring Socio-Economic GENDER Inequality: Toward an Alternative to the UNDP Gender-Related Development Index," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 41-75.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Das, Sumit Kumar & Mishra, Udaya S. & Das, Milan & Das, Pritilata, 2022. "Perceptions of gender norms and sex-typed cognitive abilities among Indian adolescents – A study of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    2. E Darcy Burgund, 2021. "Task-domain and hemisphere-asymmetry effects in cisgender and transmale individuals," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Giofrè, D. & Allen, K. & Toffalini, E. & Mammarella, I.C. & Caviola, S., 2022. "Decoding gender differences: Intellectual profiles of children with specific learning disabilities," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Manol Nikolov Manolov & Ivan Kirilov Ivanov & Velislava Atanasova Chavdarova, 2023. "Gender-Role Stereotypes in the Bulgarian Family: Cross-Generational Transmission of Gender Attitudes," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-14, June.
    5. Gijsbert Stoet & David C Geary, 2013. "Sex Differences in Mathematics and Reading Achievement Are Inversely Related: Within- and Across-Nation Assessment of 10 Years of PISA Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-10, March.
    6. Martin Asperholm & Sanket Nagar & Serhiy Dekhtyar & Agneta Herlitz, 2019. "The magnitude of sex differences in verbal episodic memory increases with social progress: Data from 54 countries across 40 years," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-11, April.
    7. Giannelli, Gianna Claudia & Rapallini, Chiara, 2016. "Immigrant student performance in Math: Does it matter where you come from?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 291-304.
    8. Carmen Aina & Chiara Mussida & Gabriele Lombardi, 2023. "Are Business and Economics Alike?," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(2), pages 557-585, July.
    9. Yulia V. Kuzmina, 2016. "Can Teacher Practices Reduce the Gender Gap in Mathematics Interest for Students with Different Achievements?," HSE Working papers WP BRP 35/EDU/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    10. 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).
    11. Daly, Michael & Obschonka, Martin & Stuetzer, Michael & Sutin, Angelina & Shaw-Taylor, Leigh & Satchell, Max & Robinson, Eric, 2019. "Neuroticism Mediates the Relationship Between Industrial History and Modern-Day Regional Obesity Levels," MPRA Paper 106505, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 Jul 2020.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Costantini, Valeria & Monni, Salvatore, 2009. "Gender disparities in the Italian regions from a human development perspective," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 256-269, March.
    2. Dilmaghani, Maryam, 2021. "The gender gap in competitive chess across countries: Commanding queens in command economies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 425-441.
    3. Elizabeth Stanton, 2007. "Engendering Human Development: A Critique of the UNDP’s Gender-Related Development Index," Working Papers wp131, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    4. Faustine Perrin, 2014. "On the Construction of a Historical Gender Gap Index. An Implementation on French Data," Working Papers 05-14, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC).
    5. Jussi Heikkilä & Ina Laukkanen, 2022. "Gender-specific Call of Duty: A Note on the Neglect of Conscription in Gender Equality Indices," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 603-615, July.
    6. Odozi, John C., 2012. "Socio economic gender inequality in Nigeria: A review of theory and measurements," MPRA Paper 41826, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. repec:rre:publsh:v:39:y:2009:i:1:p:23-48 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Giulia Mancini, 2018. "Women's Labor Force Participation in Italy, 1861-2011," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 3-68.
    9. van Staveren, I.P., 2002. "Towards monitoring mutual trade-gender links," ISS Working Papers - General Series 19102, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    10. Bérenger Bérenger & Audrey Chouchane, 2008. "Working Paper 94 - Des inégalités de genre à l’indice de qualité de vie des femmes," Working Paper Series 229, African Development Bank.
    11. Faustine PERRIN, 2022. "Can the historical gender gap index deepen our understanding of economic development?," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(3), pages 379-417, September.
    12. C. Cascella & J. Williams & M. Pampaka, 2022. "An Extended Regional Gender Gaps Index (eRGGI): Comparative Measurement of Gender Equality at Different Levels of Regionality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 757-800, January.
    13. Julia Bock-Schappelwein & Ulrike Famira-Mühlberger & Thomas Horvath & Ulrike Huemer & Elisabeth Schappelwein, 2015. "Gleichstellungsindex Arbeitsmarkt. Eine Analyse des Geschlechterverhältnisses in Österreich," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 57841.
    14. Mehmet Çolak & Aylin Ege, 2013. "An Assessment of EU 2020 Strategy: Too Far to Reach?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 659-680, January.
    15. Suwastika Naidu, 2016. "Does Human Development Influence Women’s Labour Force Participation Rate? Evidences from the Fiji Islands," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 1067-1084, July.
    16. Dorota Witkowska, 2013. "Gender Disparities in the Labor Market in the EU," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 19(4), pages 331-354, November.
    17. Chaudhuri, Sanjukta, 2013. "A Life Course Model of Human Rights Realization, Female Empowerment, and Gender Inequality in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 55-70.
    18. Suma Scaria, 2014. "A Dictated Space? Women and Their Well-being in a Kerala Village," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 421-449, October.
    19. Mónica Domínguez-Serrano & Francisco Blancas, 2011. "A Gender Wellbeing Composite Indicator: The Best-Worst Global Evaluation Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(3), pages 477-496, July.
    20. Iñaki Permanyer, 2013. "Are UNDP Indices Appropriate to Capture Gender Inequalities in Europe?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 927-950, February.
    21. Guang-zhen Wang, 2014. "The Impact of Social and Economic Indicators on Maternal and Child Health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 935-957, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0039904. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.