Mardi 29 septembre 2026 de 9 h à 17 h 15
Salle de conférence, site Ulm du Collège de France
3 , rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris
Established since the 1990s as a subject of study worthy of attention in the field of French sociology, gender-based educational inequalities are now at the center of numerous debates. These debates focus primarily on issues of academic success and access to certain scientific disciplines, foremost among which is mathematics. This discipline, in fact, combines two distinctive features: it is the most highly valued in higher education and in the labor market, yet it is also one of the disciplines in which gender inequalities are the most significant and persistent.
Two recent developments have significantly renewed attention on these issues, both within the academic world and beyond. First, the latest reform of the baccalaureate and general high school curriculum appears to have caused a significant proportion of female high school students to drop out prematurely from what is commonly referred to as the “science track”—which, in this context, might more accurately be called the “math track.” Second, a growing body of highly compelling evidence points to the emergence of a performance gap on math tests during the first year of elementary school (CP), a gap that subsequently widens throughout a student’s schooling.
The purpose of this seminar is to bring together and facilitate a dialogue on recent empirical research that documents and sheds light on these two phenomena. To move beyond mere observations, we will also discuss the relevance of an approach currently being considered as a possible solution to the problem of gender inequalities in mathematics: the practice of single-sex mathematics classes.
