Chapter 14: Iceland and Rural/Urban Girls-Pisa 2003 Examined from an Emancipatory Viewpoint:

Scholarly research related to gender and mathematics is not as frequently published as it was in the 1980s and the 1990s. In Lubienski’s (2000) survey of Mathematical Education Research from 1982 to 1998 there are 367 publications in Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (JRME) and 385 publications in Educational Studies in Mathematics (ESM) about gender. This gives us approximately 21 publications a year in JRME and 22 publications a year in ESM. We did a search of publications about gender in JRME and ESM from 1999 to 2005 (or today) and saw a very different picture. Over this period 14 publications were in JRME and 17 publications in ESM, which gives approximately 4 publications a year in JRME and 3 publications a year in ESM.

So what do these numbers tell us about the status of research about gender and mathematics? Does this mean that the gender gap has been closed? If so, for whom is that true? Does it mean that we don’t have to worry about gender differences in mathematics any more? And if it is true, is it certain that it will sustain itself without any follow up? Finally, why are there still differences in women entering fields such as mathematics and physics?