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Societal Inequalities Amplify Gender Gaps in Math

Author

Listed:
  • Breda, Thomas

    (Paris School of Economics)

  • Jouini, Elyès

    (Université Paris-Dauphine)

  • Napp, Clotilde

    (CNRS)

Abstract

While gender gaps in average math performance are close to zero in developed countries, women are still strongly underrepresented among math high performers. Using data from five successive waves of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), we show that this underrepresentation is more severe in more unequal countries. This relationship holds for a wide range of societal inequalities that are not directly related to gender. It is also observed in other parts of the performance distribution and among various sets of countries, including developing countries. Similar relationships are found in science and reading. Such findings highlight how differences in socio-economic and cultural factors can affect gender gaps in performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Breda, Thomas & Jouini, Elyès & Napp, Clotilde, 2019. "Societal Inequalities Amplify Gender Gaps in Math," IZA Discussion Papers 12436, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12436
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Miles Corak, 2013. "Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 79-102, Summer.
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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. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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).
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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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    More about this item

    Keywords

    income inequality; societal inequality; culture; gender gap in math; top math performers;
    All these keywords.

    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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