Education and sex 教育与性别
Vital statistics 重大的统计发现
May 29th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Girls are becoming as good as boys at mathematics, and are still better at reading
始终保持阅读技能优势的女孩,如今在数学方面也开始与男孩势均力敌。
TRADITION has it that boys are good at counting and girls are good at reading. So much so that Mattel once produced a talking Barbie doll whose stock of phrases included “Math class is tough!”
男孩善于算数，女孩善于阅读，这个老观念如此深入人心，以至Mattel公司制造的会说话的芭比娃娃都说“数学课真难！”
Although much is made of differences between the brains of adult males and females, the sources of these differences are a matter of controversy. Some people put forward cultural explanations and note, for example, that when girls are taught separately from boys they often do better in subjects such as maths than if classes are mixed. Others claim that the differences are rooted in biology, are there from birth, and exist because girls' and boys' brains have evolved to handle information in different ways.
虽然男女间的大脑差异是多方面的，但其根源还存在争议。譬如，有人从文化的角度做出解释，那就是，当男女分班时女孩的诸如数学的科目表现要比合班时更好。其他人从生物学角度宣称这些差异从一出生就存在，这是由于男女大脑已进化用不同的方式出理信息。
Luigi Guiso of the European University Institute in Florence and his colleagues have just published the results of a study which suggests that culture explains most of the difference in maths, at least. In this week's Science, they show that the gap in mathematics scores between boys and girls virtually disappears in countries with high levels of sexual equality, though the reading gap remains.
位于佛罗伦萨的意大利欧洲大学研究所的Luigi Guiso 和他的同事的一项研究成果刚刚发表在本周的《科学》杂志上，该研究至少从文化角度解释男女数学上的许多差异，实际上，在男女平等程度高的国家里，虽然男女的数学成绩的差别消失了，但阅读能力的差别仍然存在。
Dr Guiso took data from the 2003 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment. Some 276,000 15-year-olds from 40 countries sat the same maths and reading tests. The researchers compared the results, by country, with each other and with a number of different measures of social sexual equality. One measure was the World Economic Forum's gender-gap index, which reflects economic and political opportunities, education and well-being for women. Another was based on an index of cultural attitudes towards women. A third was the rate of female economic activity in a country, and the fourth measure looked at women's political participation.
Guiso 博士采用来自2003年经合组织 [1] 国际学生评价统计的数据。来自40国际约276，000 位15岁学生参加同样的数学和阅读能力测试，研究人员比较社会男女平等程度不同的国家学生的测试结果。衡量社会男女平等程度的标准有以下几方面：一是反应女性的经济、政治、教育和福利的世界经济论坛的性别差异指数；二是对妇女的文化态度指数；三是妇女参与国家经济活动的程度；四是看妇女参政情况。
On average, girls' maths scores were, as expected, lower than those of boys. However, the gap was largest in countries with the least equality between the sexes (by any score), such as Turkey. It vanished in countries such as Norway and Sweden, where the sexes are more or less on a par with one another. The researchers also did some additional statistical checks to ensure the correlation was material, and not generated by another, third variable that is correlated with sexual equality, such as GDP per person. They say their data therefore show that improvements in maths scores are related not to economic development, but directly to improvements in the social position of women.
按平均来说，正如所期望的，女孩数学成绩低于男孩，然而，在男女最不平等的国家（按任一衡量标准得出的结果），如土耳其，这种成绩差距最大；而象挪威和瑞典这样男女或多或少相互平等的国家，其成绩差距不明显。研究人员也做了一些其他的统计分析以确保其关联性是切实可靠的，而不是与性别平等有关的其他变量，如人均国民生产总值，因此，他们认为数学成绩的改善与经济的发展无关，而是与妇女社会地位的提高有直接关系。
The one mathematical gap that did not disappear was the differences between girls and boys in geometry. This seems to have no relation to sexual equality, and may allow men to cling on to their famed claim to be better at navigating than women are. However, the gap in reading scores not only remained, but got bigger as the sexes became more equal. Average reading scores were higher for girls than for boys in all countries. But in more equal societies, not only were the girls as good at maths as the boys, their advantage in reading had increased.
属于男女数学能力差距之一的几何学上的差距没有消失，这种差距似乎与女平等程度不相关，这可能让男人更坚定他们众所周知的观点，即男性更擅长于驾驶。然而，男女阅读成绩的差距不仅还在，而且是男女越平等这种差距越大。所有国家女生的阅读方面的平均得分比男生更高。但在更平等的社会里，女孩不仅与男孩一样擅长数学，而且她们在阅读能力上的优势更大。
This suggests an interesting paradox. At first sight, girls' rise to mathematical equality suggests they should be invading maths-heavy professions such as engineering—and that if they are not, the implication might be that prejudice is keeping them out. However, as David Ricardo observed almost 200 years ago, economic optimisation is about comparative advantage. The rise in female reading scores alongside their maths scores suggests that female comparative advantage in this area has not changed. According to Paola Sapienza, a professor of finance at Northwestern University in Illinois who is one of the paper's authors, that is just what has happened. Other studies of gifted girls, she says, show that even though the girls had the ability, fewer than expected ended up reading maths and sciences at university. Instead, they went on to be become successful in areas such as law.
这个统计发现解释一个有趣的矛盾社会现象：乍一看，女性数学能力的提高表明她们应该正侵占大量需要数学的职业，如工程领域，如果没有的话，问题可能在于对女性的偏见拒她们于工程类职业的门外。然而，正如200百年前David Ricardo [2] 指出，经济领域的最优化在于比较优势。女性阅读和数学能力的提高表明她们在工程领域的比较优势并没有改变。根据伊利诺伊州西北大学金融学教授，该篇论文作者之一，Paola Sapienza 所说，这正是曾经所发生的一切的根源。她还说，对天才女孩的研究说明即使她们有这样能力，也比所期望更少人最后选择在大学里读数学和自然科学专业，相反，她们继续在诸如法律等行业取得成功。
In other words, girls may acquire an absolute advantage over boys as a result of equal treatment. This is something that society, more broadly, has not yet taken on board. Mattel may wish to take note that among Teen Talk Barbie's 270 phrases concerning shopping, parties and clothes, at least one might usefully have been, “Dostoevsky rocks!”
换句话说，平等对待女性的结果是她们能获得超过男性的绝对优势。更广泛的是，社会仍然没有意识到这一点。Mattel 公司可能希望注意到在其会说话的芭比少年涉及购物、聚会和衣服的用语中，至少本应该有一句“Dostoevsky rocks!”本帖地址：http://bbs.kaoyan.com/thread-2267465-1-1.html 转载请注明本帖地址。
