The U.S. usually sends only 'half a girl' to the International Math Olympiad

While male students are more likely to underperform academically in school than girls, the International Math Olympiad is still a boy's game, Five Thirty Eight reports. This year's U.S. team became the first to win the international competition in 21 years (beating out the reigning champions, China) but they did not have a single woman in participation. The average number of women sent to the IMO by the U.S. is actually only 0.5, and 88 percent of the United States' competing IMO teams since 1974 have been entirely male.

Each nation that participates in the International Math Olympiad can send up to six students under 20 who have not yet started college. Azerbaijan, North Korea, and Tajikistan are the only countries that have never had a girl on their IMO teams. But even the nations that have higher participation among women still sport some depressing stats: Bolivia, Albania, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Croatia have averaged the most female participants — with a mere 1 to 1.3 girls per team.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science reports that men are twice as likely to be hired for a math job in the U.S. than women with equal skills.

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