Boys and Girls at STEM

Let me start by expanding a term used throughout this blog: STEM. It stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths”. Now for the provocative question: why are boys better than girls at STEM?

Here’s an economist, Alex Tabarrok’s take on the subject. He talks of the so-called “gender-equality paradox”:

“Countries with the highest levels of gender equality tend to have the lowest ratios of women to men in STEM education.”

Yes, that means those famed Scandinavian countries! The usual explanation for this is that “less is riding on choice of career in the richer, gender-equal countries”. In other words, the benefits of a higher paying STEM job in those countries gets eaten away by high taxes, and in any case, the state takes good care of you regardless of career choice…

Another reason for the STEM question is that males have a higher variability. “Variability” means that there are lots of boys who excel at things and equally, there are lots of boys who are terrible at those very things. The extremes for boys, both on the good and the bad side, are, er, more extreme.

Then there’s the fact that girls are better at reading skills in almost all countries. But wait, there’s more:

“Even in countries where (girls) are better at math and science than boys on average they are relatively better at reading.”

I’ll reiterate that last point: even if girls are better than boys at STEM, they are better than boys at reading by an even higher margin.

Keep that in mind when you read the next point:

“Now consider what happens when students are told. Do what you are good at!”

See where the “crushing grip of reason” (as Calvin told Hobbes) leads to:

“Loosely speaking the situation will be something like this: females will say I got As in history and English and B’s in Science and Math, therefore, I should follow my strengthens and specialize in drawing on the same skills as history and English. Boys will say I got B’s in Science and Math and C’s in history and English, therefore, I should follow my strengths and do something involving Science and Math.”

This “comparative advantage” aspect to this that doesn’t get talked of as often. As much as the (possible) genetic aspect. Of course, the latter makes people squirm. Something one guy commented on:

“In absolutely no way is it sexist to suggest that men are generally inherently better at some things and women at others. Why are you so terrified of this truth?”

So which is it? Genes? Or the comparative advantage reason? Or a bit of both?