Risk Taking: Gender Differences and Educational Opportunity

This article focuses on two issues related to educational opportunity: (1) the relationship between risk‐taking behavior and mathematics performance, and (2) whether there are gender differences in risk‐taking behavior. From a review of literature it was concluded that students who are greater risk‐takers perform better on mathematics tests and that males are greater risk‐takers than females. It follows, therefore, that males perform better on mathematics tests in which risk‐taking plays a role. It was further concluded that these differences effect the opportunities that girls are afforded in their desires to attend college, the availablitity of scholarships, and their self‐confidence in mathematics.