The gender gap in mathematics is one of the most important challenges in education today. A study published this June in the journal Nature reveals that this difference already manifests in first grade. This data sounds an alarm, but also offers a key opportunity: to intervene in time to ensure equal opportunities in mathematics education.
Reference:
Martinot, P., Colnet, B., Breda, T. et al. «Rapid emergence of a maths gender gap in first grade». Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09126-4
The article presents the results of a four-year longitudinal assessment of language and mathematics performance for all students in 1st and 2nd grade in France (2,653,082 children). Boys and girls had very similar scores in mathematics when entering school, but after 4 months of schooling the gender gap in favor of boys is significant, and after one year it already has a considerable effect.
These results were repeated each year studied, with slight variations depending on family, class, or type of school and socioeconomic level.
Although schooling was correlated with age, the analysis of nearly orthogonal variations indicated that the gender gap increased with schooling rather than with age. These results point to the first year of schooling as the time and place where a gender gap in mathematics emerges in favor of boys, which can help focus the search for solutions and interventions.
The article shows very interesting graphs and describes in detail the regression models and Cohen's indicators used.
You can find the report at the link: https://www.3cat.cat/3cat/la-bretxa-en-matematiques-apareix-a-primer-de-primaria/video/6345277/
If there are interested people, we can organize a discussion session to delve deeper into the article.