Gender Differences in Mathematics and the Sciences: Can Attributional Retraining Improve the Performance of Gifted Females?

Abstract

There are probably no subject areas in which the problem of reducing gender differences is as urgent as in mathematics and the hard sciences. In this article, we provide a topical overview of the participation rates of girls and women in schools and universities, with an emphasis on the situation in Germany. We then discuss several attempts to explain these differences and show that until recently not enough attention has been paid to the girls' and women's self-related cognitions in these domains. They underestimate their own talents in mathematics and the sciences and, from a motivational perspective, attribute their successes and failures in such a way as to further inhibit motivation. Attributional retraining techniques could provide a solution to the problems of lowered motivation and performance. These retraining techniques have proved successful in clinical and laboratory settings, but they have not been tried in natural settings like schools and universities. Following an overview of the most important attributional retraining techniques, we describe two studies carried out with German high school students in mathematics and with female university students in statistics. Using an attributional retraining technique we developed, both studies report extremely promising results. Finally, on the basis of these studies, suggestions for further research are made.