Mind the gap – an analysis of gender differences in mathematics and science achievement in South Africa

This paper studies gender differences in mathematics and science achievement using the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data from 2019. Moreover, since grade repetition and dropouts are very common in South Africa and affect the magnitude of gender gaps, the first part of the analysis studies current gender differences in grade repetition and dropout. The descriptive analysis shows that South African boys are more likely to repeat a grade and to drop out of school compared to South African girls. Furthermore, girls outperform boys on average in mathematics and science, both in Grade 5 and 9, but the pro-girl gap is smaller in Grade 9. This suggests that the pro-girl advantage declines at higher grades. Another focus of the paper is to identify potential sources of the gender gaps besides the South African specific factors. This section finds that part of the pro-girl gap in Grades 5 and 9 can be attributed to the female advantage in school progression. Thus, without controlling for gender differences in over-age and dropouts by creating more comparable groups one would bias gender gaps in achievement. Furthermore, this paper shows that there are significant gender differences in attitudes towards mathematics and school in general and some are correlated with the gender differences in achievement. The multivariate analysis employing an ordinary least squares regression with interaction effects and school fixed effects shows that most considered interaction effects are not statistically significant in Grade 5, but several ones are significant in Grade 9. For example, ninth-grade girls are less affected by weekly bullying than their male peers, but value mathematics less. Although the results are an important step towards understanding the female advantage in mathematics and science, we need more studies that explain why girls are less likely to enrol in STEM degrees and why the pro-girl advantage in education does not result in a female advantage in the labour market. Moreover, the results show clearly that South African girls and boys face different challenges during their school careers, which both need equal attention.