Word: benbow
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Camilla Benbow and Julian Stanley acknowledge that differences in the upbringings of boys and girls as well as their different attitudes toward math are major reasons for the very small number of creative female mathematicians--some experts contend that you can count the number of women doing notable work in mathematics on one hand. But, the two Johns Hopkins psychologists believe that such social factors can only account for part of the difference in mathematical performance between males and females...
That theory meets its strongest challenge yet in a seven-year study reported in this week's Science magazine. According to its authors, Doctoral Candidate Camilla Persson Benbow and Psychologist Julian C. Stanley of Johns Hopkins University, males inherently have more mathematical ability than females...
...Benbow and Stanley decided to compare boys and girls who excel at math. In six separate "talent searches" conducted from 1972 to 1979, they tested a total of 9,927 students from schools in Washington, D.C., and five states (Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania). To be eligible the students had to score in the upper 2% to 5% on a standard math test. As part of the study, the students, seventh-and eighth-graders, took both the math and verbal sections of the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Boys and girls performed equally well...
...Benbow and Stanley find it "notable" that a sizable sex difference shows up in the seventh grade, before most students have a chance to take or drop optional courses. Some academics argue that girls score lower because they take fewer courses in math. Partly true, say the authors. The gap between boys and girls in one retested group grew ten points from the time of their talent search until high school graduation. But the gap was 40 points to begin with...
Many women "can't bring themselves to accept sexual difference in aptitude," says Benbow. "But the difference in math is a fact. The best way to help girls is to accept it and go from there...