284
G I R L S G E T
B E T T E R G R A D E S
THAN BOYS
ELEANOR E. MACCOBY (1917– )
IN CONTEXT
APPROACH
Feminist psychologyBEFORE
Early 20th century First
research into sex differences
by female psychologists.1970s Studies of the sexes
tend to emphasize differences
between men and women.AFTER
1980s Studies suggest
structural differences between
the male and female brain.1993 Anne Fausto-Sterling
claims biological graduations
exist between “male” and
“female,” such that we can
identify five different sexes
along the spectrum.2003 Simon Baron-Cohen
argues that the female brain is
predominantly hard-wired for
empathy, and the male brain
for understanding systems.T
he emergence of feminist
psychologists during the
1970s revived an interest in
the study of sex differences, which
had waned during the rise of
behaviorism. Feminist concerns
became increasingly important to
US psychologist Eleanor Maccoby.
Frustrated by the tendency of
psychological literature to report on
research findings that emphasized
the differences between men and
women rather than the similarities,
Maccoby, with student Carol
Jacklin, reviewed more than 1,600
studies of gender differences. They
published their findings in The
Psychology of Sex Differences (1974)
with the aim of showing that what
most consider essential differencesbetween the sexes are in fact
myths, and that many gender
stereotypes are untrue. Although
some findings had shown boys to be
more aggressive and more adept at
mathematics and spatial reasoning
than girls, and girls to have superior
verbal abilities, subsequent studies
revealed that these differences
are either negligible or are more
complex than they initially appear.
One difference that was
consistent and undeniable was
that “girls get better grades than
boys” in school. Maccoby found
this particularly interesting,
especially considering that girls
did not obtain higher aptitude test
scores when all of the subject
matter areas were reviewed.There is no
significant difference
in the overall
intellectual aptitude
of boys and girls.But because girls tend to put in
a greater effort at school, and
have greater interest and
better work habits......girls get better grades
than boys.