Women over 40 good at math

An article in the Toronto Star from March 10 sites research from Graham Orpwood, a York University emeritus professor, that women over 40 do significantly better than men in college math courses. The article suggests that the difference might be due to better time management skills but it seems that that particular conclusion is more of a guess.

Toronto Star article

The study also says that half as many women study math as men. There was little attempt in the article to explain why this might be the case.

What I don't like about the Toronto Star article is that they then get a bunch of (apparently random) people to comment on the results apparently picking the narrative that the reader might take away from this study.

What is important are the three summary points of the conclusion of the study:

• Many students identified as being at risk of failing math have a poor grasp of basic functions taught in elementary school, such as fractions, ratios, proportions and percentages, so students should be provided more practice in these.


• College and school staff should hold a round-table discussion on how to streamline which high school math courses are required for admission to college courses and not have such a disconnect from school to school.


• Schools should convince parents and students to focus on time management and self-discipline.

It is hard to make such sweeping statements about gender differences over time, but data should be collected to see what the possible causes of large scale failings and shifts of attitudes towards math. I can say that when I was going through high school the number of girls in the advanced math courses were cut in half each year from years 9-12 until there were almost none in the calculus course in my high school. However, in the years after I was in school this changed dramatically. What this could mean is that in the next few years more women over 40 will start studying math. In my first year courses I see a roughly 50-50 split between the sexes.