Reading Between The Lines: Why Girls ’ Superior Reading Skills May Be Lowering Their Future Salaries

By guest blogger Louisa Lyon In many countries, the proportion of girls opting to pursue careers in lucrative fields such as engineering and computer science has stagnated. Despite the best efforts of schools, universities and governments, women remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called “STEM” subjects. The shortage of women is particularly acute in professions with a heavy focus on maths. But why? A recent study in PNAS suggests that the answer may lie in differences in ability between boys and girls. But surprisingly, the ability in question is not maths, but reading. In a nutshell, girls who are good at maths tend to be even better at reading, and as a result, many turn away from maths and opt instead to pursue careers that utilise their even stronger language skills. By contrast, boys who are good at maths tend not to show this same advantage in reading, making their decision to stick with STEM subjects much more straightforward. The authors of the study, Thomas Breda and Clotilde Napp, who are based at universities in Paris, uncovered this effect while analysing data from the Programme for International Student Assessment, better known as the PISA study. Every 3 years, hundreds of thousands of 15-year-olds in 34 mostly developed countries and 30 developing countries complete the PISA test, which measures ability in maths, reading and science. It also asks pupils to indicate whether they intend to pursue a math...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Gender guest blogger Occupational Reading Source Type: blogs