Gender and Achievement in Mathematics by Indigenous African Students Majoring in Mathematics

This study investigated gender differences in mathematics achievement of first-year B.Sc. Degree (mathematics major) students at the University of the North in South Africa. They were 214 male and female students. The ages of students ranged from 17 to 66 for 178 men ( M = 22.3) and 17 to 35 years for 36 women ( M = 21.5). With their marks in mathematics as the criterion measure, no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of the two groups was noted; however, a qualitative examination of the category-wise achievement scores of the two groups suggests further study of the bases for some women's achievement to be higher than the men's.