Larry Summers, Meet Mongolia

Remember that flap over Harvard's president, Larry Summers, suggesting that there may be a genetic reason for women not having proportionate representation in academic and business circles? Well, in Mongolia, the gender gap looks to be going the other direction. I found it over at Gene Expressions. A snippet:

The preference [in Mongolia] to send daughters to college has led to what the United
Nations calls a "reverse gender gap" -- women now make up 60 percent of all students at Mongolian universities. The trend is particularly distinctive because Asia is typically considered a place where women are less valued than men.

"It's just the opposite of much of Asia. Arab and Asian students in other countries often don't believe" that this could happen, says Solongo Algaa, a demographer at the National University of Mongolia,who studies the phenomenon.

Women also perform better than men at places like National University of Mongolia, says Davaa Suren, the university's vice president. Looking over the scores on a recent entrance exam in the Mongolia-language department, he notes that 8 of the top 10 students are women. In economics, women are 7 of the top 10 students; in
science departments, women account for about half of the top 10. He shrugs when asked why the gap exists: "Perhaps women are more hard-working."

Make of it what you will.