Cognitive gender differences among Israeli children

The study investigated gender differences among 11,000 Israeli children in Grades 4–6 with respect to verbal, spatial, and mathematical ability, as measured by 12 intelligence tests. Consistent differences in score variance were found across grades for 11 of the 12 tests. In each of these tests the variance for boys exceeded that for girls by 10%–20%. With respect to mean achievement, consistent cross-grade differences were found only for mathematical ability, where boys had the edge (about 0.20 SD). These findings diverge from those of recent American studies, which found no gender differences in any of these realms. Furthermore, they differ from the results of earlier Israeli studies in that the gender gap is limited to mathematical ability, and its size is much smaller. The revealed gender gap can be partially attributed to differences in response strategy: girls were found to be more likely to skip items for which they lack an answer (i.e., to take fewer risks in guessing). This implies that the performance of girls on intelligence tests will improve if they are encouraged to dare to guess.This research was supported by the Henrietta Szold Research Institute. We thank Nora Cohen for providing the data base; Lavee Artman, Kalman Binyamini, Nora Cohen, Eyal Gamliel, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on previous drafts; and Helene Hogri for the editorial revisions.