Three years after the president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers, got into trouble for questioning womenâ??s â??intrinsic aptitudeâ? for science and engineering â?? and 16 years after the talking Barbie doll proclaimed that â??math class is toughâ? â?? a study paid for by the National Science Foundation has found that girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests.
Janet Hyde, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study, said the persistent stereotypes about girls and math had taken a toll.
â??The stereotype that boys do better at math is still held widely by teachers and parents,â? Dr. Hyde said. â??And teachers and parents guide girls, giving them advice about what courses to take, what careers to pursue. I still hear anecdotes about guidance counselors steering girls away from engineering, telling them they wonâ??t be able to do the math.â?