PHYSICS: DO GIRLS AVOID IT BECAUSE IT'S TOO HARD?

In late April, head teacher Katharine Birbalsingh commented that girls didn't like physics and are put off it because of the hard maths

- PROF CHRISTINA PAGEL

In 2021, 23 per cent of students taking physics A-Level in England were female. Five years ago it was 21 per cent, so any progress is glacial. In April, while giving evidence to the parliamentary Science and Technology Committee, Katharine Birbalsingh, a head teacher and chair of the government's Social Mobility Commission, was asked why this was, particularly in reference to her own school where only 14 per cent of physics A-Level students were female. She replied that they just didn't like it and were put off by the hard maths. The evidence suggests otherwise.

Firstly, in 2021 girls did (a bit) better than boys in both GCSE and A-Level maths. Secondly, the maths in physics A-Level cannot be harder than the maths in maths A-Level - and 39 per cent of maths A-Level students nationally are girls (and 59 per cent in Birbalsingh's school). So given girls do well at maths when they take it and are more likely to study maths at A-Level than they are physics, it doesn't follow that it's the maths that is putting them off. So what is behind the gap?