Probably the most interesting thing here: > Across all countries, 24 percent of girls had science as their best subject, 25 percent of girls’ strength was math

Probably the most interesting thing here: > Across all countries, 24 percent of girls had science as their best subject, 25 percent of girls’ strength was math, and 51 percent excelled in reading. For boys, the percentages were 38 for science, 42 for math, and 20 for reading. > The gap in reading “is related at least in part to girls’ advantages in basic language abilities and a generally greater interest in reading; they read more and thus practice more,” Geary told me. I'm a little startled by this skew in reading. But on the other hand, it's not terribly surprising. As much of a gender gap as there is in technology, there's an even greater one in primary language arts education. I'm not sure how to put this delicately, but if there is a lack of female role-models in STEM, there are a corresponding lack of role models for boys in language arts. And the curriculum of books read, from all I remember, naturally skewed heavily towards more feminine characters and subjects, particularly in elementary school years. It was a real slog to grind through yet another award-winning vaguely historical young adult novel in reading groups in the classroom; I was lucky enough to have a father and uncles that would feed me their pulps and thrillers on the side to foster a voracious reading habit, but almost all my male peers had little exposure to reading outside school, and almost universally were turned off from it.