Mathematics the Critical Filter: A Look at Some Residues

Interviews were conducted regarding attitudes toward sex role and mathematics with three cognitively equated groups of girls who had enrolled in different amounts of theoretical (college-track) math in high school ( n =87). Girls who took the least math were less ambitious and in some ways, more independent. Girls who took four years of theoretical math had more pleasant earliest memories of math, fewer negative experiences with teachers, but more conflict between sex role and achievement. Results continue to underscore contradictions in the socialization of girls.