There’s new paper ammunition for all combatants in the eternal anger-and-joy-filled war to explain why more men than women officially keep on studying mathematics.
The new paper that provides—that is itself—the ammunition is:
“Girls’ Comparative Advantage in Reading Can Largely Explain the Gender Gap in Math-Related Fields,” Thomas Breda and Clotilde Napp, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116, no. 31, July 30, 2019, pp. 15435-15440.
The authors, at the Paris School of Economics, at Paris-Jourdan Sciences-Economiques, and at Université Paris Dauphine, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, explain:
“we show that female students who are good at math are much more likely than male students to be even better in reading. As a consequence, the difference between 15-y-old students’ math and reading abilities, which is likely to be determined by earlier socialization processes, can explain up to 80% of the gender gap in intentions to pursue math-studies and careers.”
BONUS: An old song:
Tangential bonus to the bonus: