Poor self-image cannot explain maths gender gap

Studies showing that women's underachievement in maths is due to their own poor self-image are fundamentally flawed, according to psychologists Gijsbert Stoet, from the University of Leeds, and Professor David Geary from the University of Missouri. Their findings suggest that recent strategies aimed at improving girls' performance in maths - which are based on these studies - are misguided and unlikely to work. The low number of women in the top levels of mathematics-related fields has long been a topic of heated debate. One recent explanation, which has become popular with policy-makers, blames the widespread perception that men are inherently better at maths than women. According to this theory, the stereotype of male mathematical dominance has led girls and women to under-rate their own abilities in maths. Crucially, the theory continues, this poor self-image is causing girls and women to underperform in maths. This explanation, termed 'stereotype threat' was originally proposed in 1999 in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and was subsequently backed up by a number of additional studies.