Penner Andrew M
Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-5100, USA.
AJS. 2008;114 Suppl:S138-70. doi: 10.1086/589252.
Genetic and other biological explanations have reemerged in recent scholarship on the underrepresentation of women in mathematics and the sciences. This study engages this debate by using international data-including math achievement scores from the Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study and country-level data from the World Bank, the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, the World Values Survey, and the International Social Survey Programme-to demonstrate the importance of social factors and to estimate an upper bound for the impact of genetic factors. The author argues that international variation provides a valuable opportunity to present simple and powerful arguments for the continued importance of social factors. In addition, where previous research has, by and large, focused on differences in population means, this work examines gender differences throughout the distribution. The article shows that there is considerable variation in gender differences internationally, a finding not easily explained by strictly biological theories. Modeling the cross-national variation in gender differences with country-level predictors reveals that differences among high achievers are related to gender inequality in the labor market and differences in the overall status of men and women.
在近期关于女性在数学和科学领域代表性不足的学术研究中，遗传学及其他生物学解释再度出现。本研究通过使用国际数据——包括第三次国际数学与科学研究的数学成绩分数以及来自世界银行、联合国、国际劳工组织、世界价值观调查和国际社会调查项目的国家层面数据——参与这场辩论，以证明社会因素的重要性，并估计遗传因素影响的上限。作者认为，国际差异为阐述社会因素持续重要性提供了简单而有力论据的宝贵契机。此外，以往研究大体上聚焦于总体均值的差异，而本研究考察了整个分布中的性别差异。文章表明，国际上性别差异存在相当大的变化，这一发现难以用严格的生物学理论轻易解释。用国家层面的预测因素对性别差异的跨国变化进行建模显示，成绩优异者之间的差异与劳动力市场中的性别不平等以及男女总体地位差异有关。
