Topic: Females and how they excel in grades comparing to males

 

Throughout history men have been seen as “more intellectually capable” than their female counterparts. Women have principally been portrayed as “inferior in all aspects” to men, especially when the topic of education is involved. Women were not even seen as worthy of being educated properly till a century previous to modern era. Now, as we hastily guide ourselves, through the 21st century, times have drastically changed. Women are being granted the right for education all around this vast earth. Though, due to this event, a vast majority of schools in the United States and in other countries have tightly stowed away a secret from many students and parents of society alike.

 

The secret that females have excelled in almost every subject comparing to males.

 

A recent study taken from 1914 to 2011, spanning more than 30 nations indicated almost the same results. Though most of the information was retrieved from US schools. Females did predominantly better than males in most subjects in 70% of those 30 countries.Even in underdeveloped countries, where women’s rights are lacking. Even in subjects in which males are tend to be more strong at, such as math and science, females still excelled greatly.

 

In Saudi Arabia, the American International School of Riyadh, a very similar test result comparing to other nationalities, which culturally may play a role in the results. The study was collected from Skyward, an online gradebook of sorts. The study retrieved the number of As, Bs, Cs, and Ds received, categorized by gender for the eighth grade, inclusive. The results were as followed:

 

2.08 A’s per male                                                                                          2.58 B’s per male

3.96 A’s per female                                                                                       1.83 B’s per female

0.58 C’s per Female                                                                                       0.1 D’s per Female

1.19 C’s per Male                                                                                           0.15 D’s per Male

 

This study pointed to the answer that a lot of  research and studies all around the world proved. Even at an International School, with a ton of multicultural influence, the females in this school's eighth grade did dramatically better than the males in the eighth grade. The females scored approximately twice as many As as the males. As the grades go down the point scale, the males start earning more of the letter grade than the females and so on. Such as approximately  2.5 B’s per male but only 1.8 B’s per female. What needs to be made note of is that there are about a 71:48 male to female ratio.

 

There could be a number of reasons as to what causes females to transcend the males in education and grades throughout late elementary, middle, early high school. These reasons could be cultural or psychological. When it comes to psychology, there are distinct factors that could play a role in the exceeding of females. According to Dr. L.Jantz, international award winning bestselling authour, Male brains tend to generate seven times more grey matter, and once they are immersed into an activity they will not pay much attention to their surroundings. Female brains tend to generate 10X more white observed and recorded. The American International School of Riyadh is a principally international school, hence the name and includes a variety of students from different ethnicities. Though there is a larger number of students originally from the Middle East matter which enables them to multitask and focus on different tasks at one moment. This causes females to focus on multiple things, which does not shift their complete attention from one topic to the next.

 

Males tend to become immersed on one subject and become unaware of their surroundings. If a males attention is shifted from studying to another thing, it would be very difficult to bring their attention back whilst females can study more than one topic at a time, and could probably do a few other things at the same time. This could also be the cause as to why high achieving males tend to do better than high achieving females.

 

Another factor in this grade difference between sexes would be culture. This may be less of a reason comparing to psychology, though is still by many educated professors as a factor. A stereotype believed by many parents around the globe is that males “naturally” tend to predominate at math and science comparing to females while females tend to outrival males at literature type subjects. Due to this, females are likely more pressured to receive high grades. Math and science are seen by a vast majority as the subjects more likely to help you succeed in college and in your future career path, while literature is seen to be an open ended subject. This is probably the cause of why males are not pressured to achieve highly in literature. It is to be believed that only “naturals” have a chance in excelling in literature while in math and science, answers most likely do not vary.

 

Furthermore, in an abundant amount of cultures, women are supposed to be the ones to take responsibility in their households and educating their children. A woman's future is also predestined in many south asian cultures as well as a populous amount of other cultures. A high achieving, NJHS(national junior honor society) from eighth grade, stated “My entire life is already planned. Like my mother, and her mother, I too need to earn perfect grades, go to the perfect Ivy league school, get married into a family with a ton of wealth, give birth, and then educate and raise the children. I am not allowed to follow any other criteria. If I was a male, I would have none of this pressure. I would be expected to get a good paying job when I grow up, maybe get into medical or business school like my father and his father after that.” This young girl, from pakistan, due to her predetermined route, and being female, she has more pressure than many. This causes her to excel in subjects and be one of the leading students of her grade.

 

The 21st century has taken a strange turn due to this conclusion of females exceeded males in almost all core subjects. Females, logistically, are most of the time, superior in studies for most of grade school which contradicts the sexist claim that women are inferior to males. Maybe, due to this newly exposed fact, females, even in underdeveloped countries can finally be seen as equals capable of doing the same, or even better than their male counterparts. The common stereotypes of males being intellectually more capable has been shattered.