The Gender Difference Hypothesis: A Synthesis of Research Findings

Abstract

The intent of this inquiry was to synthesize empirical findings on gender differences published in the first 22 volumes of the Educational Administration Quarterly. A content analysis of these articles provided adequate statistical information to conduct a meta-analysis on 147 tests of the gender difference hypothesis. When an effect size of .5 was required to infer a gender difference on a criterion variable of interest, only 6 (or 4%o) of the 147 tests in the synthesis population provided sufficient evidence to support a gender difference hypothesis. From these findings a discussion of implications for future theoretical and empirical inquiries follows.