Are boys or girls smarter?
Until very recently, it was very common to hear statements comparing the intelligence of boys and girls, always favoring boys. And with good reason. A sexist culture offers better career, economic, political, and social opportunities to men. A sexist culture necessarily places greater value on masculine characteristics and abilities. Therefore, there are many examples of male scientists, artists, technologists, and politicians, but so few female ones.
Various global studies find lower levels of academic performance in women during adolescence, associated with a lower capacity for risk-taking, fear of failure, social stereotypes, the relative absence of female role models in science, and the tendency to prioritize social issues to hide an outstanding intellectual profile (García and Benito, 1992; García, 1994; Rais, 2001).
It is clear and true that brain differences exist. And fortunately, this is the case. We are cerebral beings that are different, and hence we have different abilities and aptitudes. Among these are the enormous advantages that women generally have in perceiving and remembering details, auditory discrimination, reading gestures and intentions, expressing themselves, or showing solidarity with others; as well as the advantages, generally male, in spatial representations, competitive actions, global representations, or practical accomplishments.
What the above reflection reveals is that one gender has some advantages in some cognitive, evaluative, and practical processes, while the other gender has advantages in others. And to explain these differences, contextual and genetic factors must most likely be combined.
This is how a clear sexist bias can be highlighted in evaluation requests, as parents submit a significantly lower number of daughters than sons in special education programs. In Colombia, the ratio has been approximately one to three. After evaluating ten thousand five hundred children, we can affirm that 7,700 of those evaluated were male and only 2,800 were female. An even more serious situation has been evidenced in Spain, where only 13% of the children referred to the Huerta Del Rey program were female (García, 1994).
To go deeper: What is intelligence, how important is it, and why you shouldn't tell anyone they're smart?
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