How sexism slows girls’s success

Aurélie (1) loves mathematics. Or rather, adored them. Because this 23-year-old student at the École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay hesitates, today, to place everything. And to reorient yourself. “I can’t take it anymore,” she said. His discouragement has nothing to do with his abilities. Brilliant, she chained the 20 out of 20 in final math when she was in a prestigious Parisian school. Then something in it cracked in prep. Due to traumatic experiences that we will detail later.

Aurélie is far from the only one. At a time when high school students must validate, fear in the stomach, their choice of orientation on the Parcoursup platform, many girls will undoubtedly be turned away from mathematical, computer and engineering sectors, in which boys remain over -represented. Within certain engineering schools, the situation continues to worsen.

The Polytechnic School has been alarmed for years of its too small number of candidates – it organizes a conference on the subject on March 20. At the last school year, the number of women admitted to this prestigious establishment plunged 16 %, against 21 % in 2023. This imbalance is all the more bad news since France lacks engineers. It would take 20,000 new graduates per year to meet the demand of companies, according to the Conference of Directors of the French Schools of Engineers. Without forgetting the boom in artificial intelligence (AI).

“France aspires to become a world power in the sector while it lacks mathematicians, deplores Véronique Slovacek-Chauveau, honorary president of women and mathematics, an association founded thirty-eight years ago. Without them, however, this ambition will fall into the water. Without them, and especially without them.

No difference in brain activity between girls and boys

Let’s say it clearly: this male predominance on mathematics has no genetic explanation, as many works have shown. An American study dating from 2019 scanned the brain of 104 children aged 3 to 10. His results confirm that the brain activity of girls and boys are the same when they are asked to understand a mathematics problem.

“They activate the same neural areas, with a pixel, with the same intensity,” explains Jessica Cantlon, neuroscian-tied from Carnegie Mellon University, in the United States, and co-authority of the study. According to the Institute National of demographic studies, who follows 18,000 children born in 2011, girls are better in math than boys in nursery school.

It is at the CP that it spoils. At this pivotal stage of schooling, the gap between the two sexes reversed at high speed. The Timss international survey, published last December, confirms this: out of the 58 countries evaluated, France is that where the difference in level in math between boys and girls in CM1 is the most marked, equally with Australia and ‘Italy. Boys get much better notes than girls. Even more worrying, this gap has worsened in France between 2017 and 2024.

Genre stereotypes

If it is not in nature, what to attribute this female sub-performance? Researchers all agree: the fault is the responsibility of gender stereotypes. We believed the penniless of women less good than the man in math eradicated for a long time in France. It is not.

The proof: each scientific woman has an anecdote to tell. “Last year, a professor of the Henri-IV high school in Paris, had deemed good not to present certain girls to the Maths Olympiads,” recalls Véronique Slovacek-Chauveau. However, they had the same notes as the boys registered. The teacher had justified himself by saying that he did not make his decision according to the results, but the potential. »»

In preparation, the abilities of girls questioned

Marina, doctoral student in cryptology in Paris-Saclay, remembers having coded with a comrade a pretty little robot animated for a duty. By presenting him in progress, the professor had retorted him: “Ah, of course, you two, you bet on aesthetics rather than on the algorithmic. A way to send them back to their sex rather than their calculations. Ipek, a math student at the Sorbonne, has an example in mind with a student, this time: “I had a 10 out of 10 ago, I said to a boy, he was faced and he ‘launched:’ ‘Are you jokes? Really ?” “. Claire Marc, book co -authority Matheuses. Girls, future of mathematics (3), also quotes the case of Claire, to whom his teacher said at his 16th birthday: “I can see that you are trying, but nothing to do, you do not have the brain of a boy. »»

Aurélie, the disenchanted student of Paris-Saclay, experienced a filthy sexism in the prestigious scientific prep of Louis-le-Grand. Boys noted the girls on their beauty and the size of their chest. Probably they felt they were pushing wings because they were in the majority -out of the 47 students in the promotion, 40 were men -, but some teachers were not to be outdone, adds the young woman.

“Mademoiselle, I would eat you very raw!” One day launched one of them to a student who had just made an error on the board. In addition to this unhealthy atmosphere of Boys Club, “Girls’ abilities were always questioned,” adds Aurélie. They were more often cut off than boys during their explanations; And the teachers spoke to me as a remaining. “The young woman today draws up an implacable assessment of her years of prep:” They destroyed the confidence and motivation of all my fellow girls. As for me, I no longer interest me to spend my time demonstrating that I have value when I have nothing to prove. »»

Girls no longer raise their hands

These stereotypes sometimes expressed unconsciously. Research has shown that boys were more often questioned than girls during math exercises (4). Agnès Gateau, project manager for the teaching of this discipline in Yonne, remembers a professor whom she had come to inspect and who gave the floor only to the detriment of the seconds. “She thought she had to be up to me, and for her, the boys were more likely to provide the right answer. The girls ended up stopping their hands. »»

As they are more questioned, boys are more likely to collect congratulations. Very early on, the message sent to their female comrades is therefore clear: do not waste time with math. You will not have the same recognition. They integrate it quickly, especially from CP. “Because these children arrive at an age when it is important to situate themselves as a girl or boy,” explains Véronique Slovacek-Chauveau.

Gender equality promotes the success of women

The idea that boys would have facilities in math “is a fairly widespread belief in the faculty,” we can read in a national education document. The reason? “The teachers are like their society, for Véronique Slovacek-Chauveau. They are not hermetic to her prejudices. Social psychology specialists have shown that it was very difficult to get rid of them.”

Many collectives try to fight, such as women and mathematics, women engineers or the association for parity in scientific and technical trades, but their action remains too limited to change consciences. The comfortable reading grids reassure us. Who says stereotypes says cultural context, moreover.

In the former Communist-Pays, who valued gender equality, women succeed better in math. The ex-German German Chancelier Angela Merkel, for example, won the general math competition of the ex-GDR in his youth, before becoming a physicist. The confidence of society, as is self -confidence, are essential to succeed, and the link between the level of anxiety and success in this matter is well established. According to a study of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (5), young people of both sexes with similar levels of self -confidence in math achieve the same results.

No need to be a genius to be good in math

Unsurprisingly, the level of anxiety of French women with regard to this material is much higher than that of the French, yet already very high. Probably because the belief remains that it is necessary to be a genius to be good in math. “We always underestimate the extraordinary plasticity of the brain, rectifies the neuroscientist Jessica Cantlon. Experience plays a decisive role in success. The raison d’être of the brain is to adapt to experiences. Otherwise, we would be plants, not humans! »»

This false idea is also a great deal of the history of learning mathematics in our country. “We still teach them in a very abstract way, to solve elitist problems, in the law of French mathematicians of the Bourbaki group, created in 1935,” regrets Aurélie. This vision, where speed, performance and result rather than reasoning takes precedence, promotes “strong” sex, according to the trainer Agnès Gateau. Because gender stereotypes push boys to become competition animals. While girls are more likely to embrace this sometimes toxic mentality.

All these obstacles cause a big waste. First for women. Scientific sectors pave the way to the most paid and most prestigious trades. Then for society: diversity promotes creativity, quality popular in research. How many discoveries will remain in limbo because France has deprived half of its best brains?

(1) The first name has been changed.

(2) “Gender Similarities in the Brain During Mathematics Development”, 2019.

(3) ed. CNRS.

(4) Igesr report “Equality girls-boys in mathematics”, February 2023.

(5) “Gender equality in education: skills, behavior and confidence”, Pisa, OECD 2015.