Maths4Girls is a free to schools initiative available throughout the UK provided by ed-tech charity, Founders4Schools. The initiative is designed to assist educators in increasing the proportion of girls pursuing maths beyond GCSE.

We do this by connecting girls age 11 and older with female professionals who use maths in their careers.

Problem we are trying to solve

At GCSE level boys and girls have equal ability in maths, yet the number of girls choosing to study maths beyond GCSE is disproportionately low. For every 100 boys taking A-level Maths, Physics or Computer Science in 2019, there were only 61, 27 and 15 girls, respectively.

This disparity is further seen in the STEM workplace, with only 14% of the workforce being female. The under-representation of girls in maths matters both at an individual level and a societal level. It contributes towards the gender wage gap and limits women and girls’ financial mobility and economic power. Such inequality contributes towards the gender pay gap and limits women’s financial mobility..

Our project

Maths4Girls allows educators to invite female (and male) role models who work within maths-based sectors such as finance, computing and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) into the classroom to inspire and encourage students to take maths beyond GCSE.

With the support of the global membership organisation, 100 Women in Finance, we ran a pilot of the Maths4Girls project in September 2019 and are now rolling out the project in England.

Our vision is that all girls are inspired to continue with maths in order to expand their career options. Our inspirational role models help young people feel confident they can excel in maths. We do this to encourage them to choose careers in finance, STEM, business, and the many other industries that need maths. This will improve their career prospects and increase female representation in these sectors. With recent reports showing measurable declines in 2019 and 2020 in attainment in all primary years in maths the work of Maths4Girls is even more vitally important to combat a future worsening of the UK STEM skills gap.