The charity National Numeracy’s new Number Confidence and Social Mobility report found that women are significantly less confident with numbers than men and are disproportionally affected by negative experiences of maths at school.
Women also reported greater negative impact on earnings, progression at work and career choices from not having a Level 2 maths qualification (equivalent to GCSE maths grade C/4) than men.
But women who used the charity’s free numeracy improvement website, the National Numeracy Challenge, improved their confidence more than men – 36% compared to 21% - and women’s numeracy skills improved more too.
With 49% of the working age population having the numeracy level of a primary school leaver, this research suggests that supporting women and girls could supercharge the whole nation’s numeracy.
