Abstract

RADOVIC SENDRA, Darinha. Gender Differences in Mathematics Attainment in Chile. Rev. colomb. educ. [online]. 2018, n.74, pp.221-242. ISSN 0120-3916.

The study of gender differences in academic attainment has been the focus of international research for the last 40 years. In this context, it is still unknown how gender differences relate to socioeconomic status (SES), and whether girls from less privileged backgrounds or from less privileged schools have even less opportunities to succeed in mathematics. Utilizing data from Chile (a country in the region that has consistently reported male advantage in mathematics) and a multilevel modelling framework for its analysis, this article describes how gender differences are distributed in the population, exploring how they may change at different levels of the SES distribution. Results suggest that boys consistently outperform girls in both early and late primary school, and that girls progress less between these years. In addition, a significant interaction with SES shows that this gap is larger for students with lower SES, with school SES effects being highly dependent on family SES effects. Finally, the political relevance of these differences and further areas of study are discussed.

Keywords : gender and mathematics; gender gap; gender and socioeconomic status; Chile.

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