Do we forget and rewind? Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Sunday that mathematics should “probably” be added to the common core of the first and final class, so that “all students” have more “mathematical culture”. A statement that goes against its high school reform applied since 2019, while teachers warn of the drop in the number of high school students who follow this subject. This decrease concerns in particular girls who, according to a note from the Department of Evaluation, Foresight and Performance, were more than 40% to follow the maths specialty in 2021. A figure down from 2020 (42%) and which reveals an imbalance, when they represent 56% of final year students.
This “reluctance” of female staff is not new: good, even very good students in science courses in high school, girls rather opt for other paths in higher education. Stereotypes, fear of failure, fear of “not being in his place”… Math skills are not innate, but always seem biased in favor of boys.
popular belief
To realize this imbalance, just look at the figures for the presence of women in higher education. Post-baccalaureate, they represent only 30% of the workforce in scientific preparation. Similarly, the share of women in engineering training was only 28.4% in 2019-2020. More generally, by bringing together each of the scientific fields of higher education – including the health sector highly prized by women – parity was not respected, the number of girls rising to 46%, according to a note on the state of higher education, research and innovation in France published last year.
The popular belief that boys are better than girls at math therefore seems to still hold sway. “Clichés die hard,” laughs mathematician Isabelle Gallagher. In the 19th century, Sophie Germain had to disguise herself as a boy to be able to study mathematics! Contrary to popular belief, the “math bump” has no gender. From an early age, already, no difference exists between the development of girls and boys. “Studies have been carried out on very young children placed in a game situation. We have succeeded in showing that cognitive abilities in mathematics, which are linked to the acquisition of the notions of geometry and manipulation of numbers, develop progressively between 2 months and 5 years, notes neurobiologist Catherine Vidal, honorary research director of the Pasteur Institute and author of Do girls have brains made for math?. These tests show that there is no difference between girls and boys.” Out of the question, therefore, to imagine a brain better wired for mathematical reasoning in boys, and less well in girls. “These clichés were still commonplace fifty years ago, but the opposite has been demonstrated by the progress of research carried out since then in neuroscience,” she continues.
Better results at the baccalaureate
Before the reform of the college and the baccalaureate of 1924, which devotes the same examination for each sex, the subjects of the high schools for girls are very “gendered”. The mathematics programs thus have a more practical orientation than their male counterpart. Once the doors are open, the girls shine in mathematics, especially at the École Normale Supérieure. “Before 1985, girls were in the mathematics section of the ENS, underlines Isabelle Collet, computer scientist and teacher-researcher at the University of Geneva. Since then, girls in the department have become rare, and it has even happened that no daughter only integrates it in certain years.” Blame it, in large part, on stereotypes. “When we think that a competition is not to our advantage, we don’t go there, points out the researcher. It’s not a problem of competition: women dare to go into very selective sectors where there are sciences, such as medicine for example. But they are less visible elsewhere.” Like a snake biting its own tail. “The current lack of women in scientific fields serves as a confirmation bias: when we find ourselves in sectors with three girls for forty boys, they have the impression that they have no place there”, continues Isabelle Collet .
A shame, when, according to figures from higher education, 35% of candidates – against 29% of candidates – had indeed obtained a good or very good mention in their baccalaureate S in 2019, without however that the girls are in the majority in higher education science courses. “There is a real ignorance of scientific professions in high school, accompanied by a subliminal message still broadcast which implies that scientific professions, apart from biology, are not for girls”, laments Véronique Slovacek-Chauveau. , professor of mathematics and vice-president of the Women and Mathematics association, which aims to fight against stereotypes in scientific studies. The lack of important female scientific figures has something to do with it. “We often talk about Marie Curie, sometimes Ada Lovelace. But that’s all, regrets Isabelle Collet. To be a woman and a scientist, in history, is to be a totally exceptional person. Conversely, boys have a plethora examples available from which they can draw inspiration.”
An unconscious process
The phenomenon has increased with the reform of the baccalaureate, while students have the possibility of choosing to abandon mathematics much earlier. No French exception here: other countries have experienced the same phenomenon in the past. “In England, choice of options also existed for the first school levels. They were removed because it was realized that girls stopped maths from 15 years old. The same thing happened in the United States. Nothing , here, is not surprising”, underlines Marie Duru-Ballat, sociologist specializing in education issues. “The earlier the orientation, the more it tends to be imbued with stereotypes”, summarizes Isabelle Collet.
According to a study conducted by CNRS researcher Pascal Huguet and Aix-Marseille professor Isabelle Régner on the choice of students in high school, today’s adolescents are still steeped in the clichés of yesteryear. “More than 70% of second, first and final year students are settled in a gender stereotypy. Among the seniors, 50% are settled in a strong to extreme stereotypy”, he described to the Figaro student a few weeks ago. These clichés can have long-term consequences on student performance. “This is called the ‘stereotype threat’, explains Catherine Vidal. In a study, it was shown that girls who were told ‘You are better than boys’ made 28% of errors in a spatial location test. They made 42% of them when they were told the opposite.” Behind these results, a story of self-confidence: “The negative message causes the girls to have less self-confidence during the test, which leads to an increase in the emotional load in the brain which will interfere with their performance. a largely unconscious process.”
To give girls the desire to do mathematics, specialists therefore recommend paying attention to high school education, but not only. “Gender stereotypes are so ingrained in our minds that, from primary school on, teachers in the lower grades often think that boys are better at math. This belief is infused throughout schooling, remarks Marie Duru-Bellat. in particular to improve the training of teachers, from the smallest classes, so that they convey less stereotypes. Long-term work ahead.