Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Boys surpass girls in maths in the first year of school

A gender gap in mathematical ability arises shortly after children begin school — irrespective of the type of school they attend and their socio-economic background.
By
  1. John A. List

    1. John A. List is in the Department of Economics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.

  2. Andrew Simon

    1. Andrew Simon is in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903, USA.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

The under-representation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) harms society, because it hinders the production of scientific knowledge and creates economic inequality. Gender gaps in higher education and the workforce are in stark contrast to the lack of differences between boys and girls in mathematical ability during early childhood1. Understanding the origin of these gaps is a crucial step in reducing them, because it informs education-policy practitioners about when to intervene. Writing in Nature, Martinot et al.2 use data on some 2.6 million children aged 5–7 years in their first and second years of school in France to systematically document the emergence of the gender gap in maths. They reveal that it arises during, not before, the first year of school.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 643, 920-921 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01717-5

References

  1. Fryer, R. G. Jr & Levitt, S. D. Am. Econ. J. Appl. Econ. 2, 210–240 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Martinot, P. et al. Nature 643, 1020–1029 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Karna, U., Lee, M. S., List, J. A., Simon, A. & Uchida, H. Nature 639, 976–984 (2025).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Fischer, J.-P. & Thierry, X. Br. J. Dev. Psychol. 40, 504–519 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. List, J. A. Experimental Economics: Theory and Practice (Univ. Chicago Press, in the press).

  6. Dhuey, E., Figlio, D., Karbownik, K. & Roth, J. J. Policy Anal. Mgmt 38, 538–578 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links