I was the 'top girl' in various mathematics contests etc. (British Maths Olympiad, Oxford entrance exam) when I was at school. It didn't really bother me and if

I was the 'top girl' in various mathematics contests etc. (British Maths Olympiad, Oxford entrance exam) when I was at school. It didn't really bother me and if anything was useful recognition at school. I think this was probably because I was sufficiently good at maths that it couldn't possibly occur to me that I couldn't be good at maths (plus having a mum who is a mathematician was a good role model). I think actually getting a prize for being the top would have been a bit weird though and I'm trying to put my finger on why (and when I did come top in exams at Oxford, nobody commented on who the top male was!). At that sort of level, you don't need encouragment to participate. Prizes for maths are a bit of a weird thing anyway - ultimately you are doing this stuff because you enjoy solving the problems. While I think maths contests are great - I got so much out of attending the training session they held at Cambridge to choose the IMO team and meeting other people like me, even though it was an intimidating experience at first - they are competitive enough without over-emphasising it. All of which isn't to say that there aren't massive gender issues that need to be addressed somehow or that stereotype threat isn't real. Those are horribly thorny problems to deal with though and so engrained in our culture generally - a whole other essay!