Girls Do Better Than Boys Begs the Question

Might girls be more tolerant of a testing environment? Could it be that girls hope to achieve in ways that please? Might our boys also achieve just in a manner that bucks the conventions? And what is it about gender? Are there differences beyond what we physically see? The data is not always as it appears. Interpretations matter. What is it that you perceive?
By Maggie Fox | Originally Published at NBCNews April 29, 2014 11:50 am

It may come as no surprise to teachers, but girls do better than boys in school, a new study finds.

What may be a surprise is that this holds true at all ages, in all subjects including math and science and around the world, the American Psychological Association analysis found.

And contrary to common wisdom that girls start to “dumb down” in middle school, their advantage in math and science actually starts to really show up at that age, Daniel Voyer and Susan Voyer of the University of New Brunswick in Canada found.

They did what’s called a meta-analysis, combining data from many different published studies. They ended up with details on more than a million boys and girls in more than 300 studies done across the world, including the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Study: Girls outperform boys in school | TODAY PLAY VIDEO (0:40)

The pattern has held true since 1914 — girls get better grades than boys in all subjects. They excluded one-time tests like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).

From elementary school through graduate school, females have a distinct advantage in grades, they found. The differences are the biggest in language and the smallest in math, but even in math girls and young women get better grades on average, the analysis found.

“This contrast in findings makes it clear that the generalized nature of the female advantage in school marks contradicts the popular stereotypes that females excel in language whereas males excel in math and science,” the researchers wrote.

It’s not clear why. It could be that girls are more likely to try to truly master the material, while boys focus on the big score of doing well on final exams or aptitude tests, the researchers said. It’s also possible that parents expect girls to do poorly and encourage them more. There’s also the popular theory that girls find it easier than boys to sit still and concentrate in class, or at least to behave in a way that pleases teachers.

Related Read. Please consider what we do to our boys. The Mask You Live In

“The fact that females generally perform better than their male counterparts throughout what is essentially mandatory schooling in most countries seems to be a well-kept secret, considering how little attention it has received as a global phenomenon,” Susan Voyer concluded.

Maggie Fox is senior health writer for NBCNews.com and TODAY.com, writing top news on health policy, medical treatments and disease. 

She’s a former managing editor for healthcare and technology at National Journal and global health and science editor for Reuters based in Washington, D.C. and London.