ABSTRACT
There are no easy answers to questions such as: Who’s smarter, men or women? In fact, women and men are more alike than they are different, and any differences that exist between men and women are subtle variations in the patterns of abilities. Indeed, what we call sex differences are better regarded as gender differences because we do not know what biological, psychological, social, or cultural factors are at the root of these variations. What we do know is that many of these differences are disappearing with time and are affected by practice.
Many noncognitive factors have been studied in an attempt to understand girls’ and womens’ achievement and, in particular, the achievement gap between women and men. Some of these include achievement motivation, fear of success, attributions for success and failure, and expectations for success. Research evidence for sex differences in these areas is generally inconsistent with the exception of expectations: Girls and women expect to do less well than boys and men, and girls and women tend to underestimate their performance on many different kinds of tasks. Given the importance of expectations for performing well, we need to find ways to raise the confidence level of girls and women, and research is pointing to the importance of factors such as specific, accurate feedback about performance.
There are fascinating issues that currently concern scholars who are interested in gender and achievement. These include computers in the classroom, sex-segregated versus coeducational schooling, diversity issues, and violence in our schools. We need to consider how gender equity can be achieved in testing and education, and beyond.
