Gender school subject, mathematics is increasingly abandoned by girls

“We need young women in science,” said Cédric Villanithis Monday November 14, at the microphone of Info France. The mathematician reacted this morning to the Ministry of Education’s decision to restore mathematics as a compulsory subject in high schools starting from the first grade. The measure, announced on November 13, must be applied from the beginning of the 2023 school year for all high school students in the general course. Since September 2020 and the application of the Blanquer reform, mathematics had become an option. But for the Fields Medal winner (2010), this backtracking on mathematics “won’t be enough (not) to bring back the girls we so badly need.”

Fewer girls in S stream from 2021

Already in January 2022, on the microphone of Info France, another mathematician, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, deplored the disastrous effects of this reform on parity in mathematics. He later said that we had “lost twenty years of effort” in two years. In fact, according to data from the Ministry of Public Education reported by Publicationbefore the reform, classes in the S-terminal had nearly as many girls (48.4%) practicing mathematics intensively as boys. In 2021, according to the latest available data, they were only 38.6%.

For Cédric Villani, if young women are moving away from this discipline, it is also due to “self-censorship (…) in a context where the rules of society and prejudices die hard”. In other words, many female students still think that math is a boy’s subject. “Strengthening Prejudices” and “ a serious problem for society “, according to the former parliamentarian who invites young women to feel legitimized in this area. She also wants mathematics to once again be one of three specialties offered in the final year to “ensure that young women are part of this discipline that helps predict the world of tomorrow.”

Cover image: Unsplash / Kenny Eliason