From: Salon.com
Maybe the infamous Barbie doll who announced that “math is hard” was on to something — that is, if she had continued on to say “when you live in a sexist society.” A new study shows that differences between boys’ and girls’ math performance has more to do with gender inequality than hard-wired ability. (Here’s a freebie for all the young’uns in the audience: “But, ma, it’s society’s fault that I failed my math test!”) Not only that, but it pokes a hole in Lawrence Summers hypothesis that men innately show more variability in mathematical ability.
Janet Hyde, a University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor, said: “It may have to do with the percentage of women in the labor force, inside technology and computers, teaching math and science at the college level” — the list goes on and on. The short of it: The math gap can’t be explained away purely by inherent biological ability.