ABSTRACT
The evidence is in and the conclusion is clear: Women can and do achieve academically as well as men. The myth of female underachievement has been exposed by many studies that have indicated that women’s behavior and motivation to achieve not only equal but often surpass that of men (Klein 1985; Maccoby and Jacklin 1974; National Center for Educational Statistics 1986; Stockard 1985; Stockard and Wood 1984; US Bureau of the Census 1987). Today, as in the past, more girls than boys graduate from high school and more women than men receive baccalaureate degrees,1 and nationwide women now outnumber men in master’s degree programs. More men than women are enrolled only in professional and Ph.D. programs but, even here, the gaps between women and men are closing (National Center for Educational Statistics 1986; Stockard et al. 1980). Fields of specialization continue to be gender linked-mathematics, engineering, and the physical and biological sciences are dominated by males, and the social sciences and humanities are dominated by females-but evidence from a study of undergraduates indicates that differences are disappearing here, too (Hafner and Shaha l984).
