FACULTY FORUM Superiority of Women in Statistics Achievement

Contrary to Buck's (1 985) recent report, in my introductory sta-tistics course, female students make higher grades than male stu-dents. This article compares my experience with Buck's and men-tions some of my anecdotal observations concerning the women's superior performance. As Buck (1985) recently suggested, most studies indicate that, compared to men, women express greater mathemat-ics anxiety and perform less well in mathematics and mathematics-related courses. Comparing letter grade fre-quencies for men and women in her statistics classes, she found "no significant difference in the distribution of ABCDF grades by gender " and suggested several possible explanations for her results (p. 100). Among such possibili-ties are that she might have given thle women more individ-ual attention, served as a positive role model for th