Are Girls Around the World Smarter Than Boys?
After analyzing educational data collected during a ten-year period concerning 1.5 million 15-year-old boys and girls from around the world, an international team of researchers from the University of Missouri and the University of Glasgow claims that girls outperform boys in reading, math, and science in 70% of the countries they studied. This finding challenges the widely-held belief that boys generally perform better in these subjects. Study author Dr. David Geary adds, “Even in countries where women’s liberties are severely restricted, we found that girls are outperforming boys in reading, mathematics, and science literacy by age 15, regardless of political, economic, social, or gender equality issues and policies found in those countries.”
Intelligence, January 2015