Gender differences in mathematics: from the international literature to the Italian context

Abstract

National and international surveys highlight a strong disparity in males and females results in mathematics: boys outperform female in almost all the countries and in all school levels. In the international context, Italy appears to be one of the countries in which the results related to gender differences in mathematics are more alarming and INVALSI tests’ data confirm a very marked gender gap in favour of males at all school levels. In this paper we present the international situation regarding gender differences in mathematics starting from large scale assessment and paying particular attention to the Italian situation. Hence we present a detailed overview of the causes underlying the gender gap in mathematics, analysing the main studies on this issue and trying to provide a complete, though complex, interpretation of this phenomenon.