October 1, 2008, Providence, RI---Do females intrinsically have lessability than males to excel in mathematics at the very highest level?Conventional wisdom seems to say yes. Harvard University presidentLawrence Summers also seemed to give credence to this notion in 2005when he suggested that it might account in part for the very smallnumber of women professors in elite university math departments.

But a new study proclaims a resounding "no", providing a fact-basedcase to back up this conclusion. The study, "Cross-Cultural Analysisof Students with Exceptional Talent in Mathematical Problem Solving,"appearing in the November 2008 issue of the Notices of the AmericanMathematical Society, brings together decades of data from severalextremely high-level mathematics competitions for young people. Thesedata show that there exist many females with profound intrinsicability in mathematics. What is more, whether this ability isidentified and nurtured is highly dependent on socio-cultural,educational, or other environmental factors. In the United States,these factors keep many boys as well as most girls from developingtheir mathematical talents to the fullest.

Girl Math Whizzes Found in Cultures that Value Math

The main part of the study examines participation in the InternationalMathematical Olympiad (IMO), a highly challenging, nine-hour,six-problem essay style examination taken by some of the mostmathematically gifted pre-college students the world over. In recentyears as many as 95 countries have sent 6-member teams to compete inthe IMO. The study found that there have been numerous girls who haveexcelled in the IMO; however, the frequency with which girls ofmedal-winning ability are identified varies greatly from country tocountry.

Even some relatively small countries, such as Bulgaria and Romania,can field highly successful IMO teams. "[W]hat most of thesecountries [that excel in the IMO] have in common are rigorous nationalmathematics curricula along with cultures and educational systems thatvalue, encourage, and support students who excel in mathematics," thestudy says. Since 1974, the highly-ranked Bulgarian, EastGerman/German, and USSR/Russian IMO teams have included 9, 10, and 13different girls, respectively. By contrast, during that same timeperiod, the US teams included just 3 girls. While only a few studentsper year typically achieve a perfect score of 42 points in thisextremely difficult exam, multiple girls have been among them,including Evgenia Malinnikova of the USSR who missed by only one pointachieving a perfect 42 three years in a row.

One of the study's findings is that many of the students from theUnited States who participate in the IMO are immigrants or children ofimmigrants from countries where education in mathematics is valued andmathematical talent is nurtured. A similar pattern holds for datafrom other highly challenging math competitions, including the USAMathematical Olympiad and the Putnam Mathematical Competition forundergraduate students, also analyzed in the study. In particular,Asian-American and white girls who are immigrants from Eastern Europeare well represented in proportion to their percentages of the US andCanadian populations among the very top students identified in thesemath competitions. It is only US- and Canadian-born white andhistorically underrepresented minority girls who areunderrepresented---underrepresented by 50-fold or more relative toAsian girls educated in the same school systems, the study concludes.

The study found that, when raised under some conditions, girlsconstitute 11% to 24% of the children identified as having profoundmathematical ability. Raised under other conditions, girls were30-fold or more underrepresented. The 8:1 to 3:1 ratio of boys togirls is likely an underestimate. In a truly gender-neutral society,the real ratio could well be close to 1:1; however, we currently lackways to measure it, the study suggests.

US Culture Discourages Girls---and Boys

Study co-author Titu Andreescu of the University of Texas at Dallasbelieves, "Innate math aptitude is probably fairly evenly distributedthroughout the world, regardless of race or gender. The hugedifferences observed in achievement levels are most likely due tosocio-cultural attributes specific to each country." Some countriesroutinely identify and nurture both boys and girls with profoundmathematical ability to become world-class mathematical problemsolvers, while others, including the USA, only rarely identify girlsof this caliber. In addition, social pressures conspire to discouragegirls from pursuing math. "[I]t is deemed uncool within the socialcontext of USA middle and high schools to do mathematics for fun;doing so can lead to social ostracism," the reportsays. "Consequently, gifted girls, even more so than boys, usuallycamouflage their mathematical talent to fit in well with their peers."

The study also looks at the representation of women among the facultyin five of the very top US research university mathematicsdepartments. Just 20% of the women in these elite departments wereborn in the United States. Of the 80% born elsewhere, many areimmigrants from countries in which girls are frequently members of IMOteams. The study found a similar race/ethnicity/birth country/genderprofile among US participants in the IMO and its training camp asamong the faculties of these outstanding math departments. "Thus, weconclude that the mathematics faculty being hired by these veryhighest-ranked research universities reflects the pool of IMOmedal-caliber students of mathematics coming through the pipeline,"the study says.

"The U.S. culture that is discouraging girls is also discouragingboys," says Janet Mertz, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professorof oncology and lead author of the study. "The situation is becomingurgent. The data show that a majority of the top young mathematiciansin this country, male as well as female, were not born here."Co-author Joseph A. Gallian, professor of mathematics at theUniversity of Minnesota Duluth, says, "Just as there is concern aboutthe US relying on foreign countries for our oil and manufacturedgoods, we should also be concerned about relying on others to fill ourneeds for mathematicians, engineers, and scientists."

"[T]he myth that females cannot excel in mathematics must be put torest," the report emphasizes. "Teachers, guidance counselors,parents, principals, university presidents, the lay public, and, mostimportantly, girls themselves need to be informed about the fact thatfemales can excel in mathematics, even at the very highest level."

Source: American Mathematical Society