Number queens

New Delhi, June 1: Socio-cultural factors — not brain capabilities — are keeping girls away from excelling in mathematics, the most exhaustive study yet to explore gender disparity in mathematics has shown.

The study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the US may also explain the absence, or the abysmally low proportion, of girls in India’s teams at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).

Its findings appear to demolish the decades-old notion that girls, or women, are innately less capable than boys, or men, at handling mathematics. Earlier, studies during the 1990s have challenged this idea, but the new study uses more data and evidence than any previous research. It will appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tomorrow.

“This work is the first to show a correlation between gender equality and the percentage of girls among the profoundly gifted on the IMO teams,” Janet Hyde, professor of psychology and research team member, told The Telegraph.

Over the past 10 years, among the 60 students who have represented India at the IMO, only 4 have been girls. France, Japan and even the US had similar low proportion of girls in their IMO teams. But Canada, Ukraine, the UK and Serbia had relatively higher numbers. In the 13 years before reunification, East Germany had five girls in its teams compared with zero from West Germany.

In the US, girls are now taking calculus in high school at the same rate as boys, and the percentage of US doctorates in mathematics awarded to women has climbed to 30 per cent in the early 21st century from a nadir of 5 per cent in the 1950s.

The differences among genetically-related populations and changes over time within countries in the proportion of girls on the IMO teams suggest that superior talent in mathematics “cannot be primarily due to biological factors”, the scientists wrote.

In an analysis of the top 30-ranked IMO teams, the scientists found India, Iran and Turkey had the fewest girls as well as the lowest scores of gender equality assigned by the World Economic Forum.

“This is consistent with the idea that gender differences in mathematics performance in these countries are due to socio-cultural factors,” Hyde said.

The scientists said gender inequity may show itself in many ways — teachers may encourage boys more than girls, girls may be advised against opting for math courses, or mathematically-gifted girls may not be nurtured.

“I have no doubt that latent talent in women for mathematics is absolutely equal to that of males,” said Sujatha Ramdorai, an award-winning mathematician at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, who was not associated with the study.

“Opportunities come by way of women once the gender gap is narrowed,” said Ramdorai, who won the 2006 Srinivasa Ramanujam Prize from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics.