It turns out that being good at math in a lot of ways is similar to being tall. It is a social construct. As the researcher I might sit down and say, "Well, this is really what I mean by math", and I can define and operationalize these concepts left and right. That doesn't necessarily translate to what people socially perceive as being good at math. Math ability is tied to other perceptions. So for example, many people may associate being really good at math with being say socially awkward or dispassionate. Those things then themselves are gendered, making everything kind of knit together in powerful ways.

Beliefs about who is good at math shifts who is allowed to be good or bad at it; shifts what feels okay, what prescriptively is allowable for people to do. Taking particular positions about it allows people to be able to prevent themselves socially. I want to present myself as a feminist, that may behoove me then to have a particular belief about women in mathematics. If I want to present myself as a particular kind of common sense, back-to-basics kind of person, that might behoove me to take a different stance about this issue.