Social scientists have long struggled to account for sex differences in test scores on test of mathematical ability. Social psychologists have argued that these performance differences can be at least partly explained by a phenomenon called stereotype threat, whereby women feel an added pressure to perform well to avoid confirming negative stereotypes about their gender group's math abilities. Paradoxically, this added pressure impairs performance on cognitively complex tasks. The first part of this talk will provide a summary of the current state of research on stereotype threat documenting the processes that underlie this phenomenon. Having identified some of the key mechanisms of these effects, the second part of the talk will examine strategies that might be effective at reducing stereotype threat. Implications will be discussed for narrowing the gap in performance and participation of women in math and science.