Proportional reasoning is a fundamental component of mathematical thinking that supports students’ understanding of ratios, proportions, scaling, and multiplicative relationships. Despite its importance, empirical findings regarding gender differences in proportional reasoning remain inconsistent and highly context-dependent. This study aims to synthesize existing empirical evidence on proportional reasoning skills in male and female students by examining the cognitive, pedagogical, and contextual factors that shape observed performance patterns. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Relevant articles published between 2010 and 2024 were identified from Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC databases using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thirty peer-reviewed empirical studies were selected and analyzed through thematic synthesis. The findings reveal that gender differences in proportional reasoning are not inherent or universal but emerge under specific conditions related to strategy use, task representation, instructional design, and sociocultural context. Female students generally demonstrate higher conceptual accuracy and more consistent use of multiplicative strategies, particularly in verbal and context-rich tasks, whereas male students tend to perform better on visually complex and graph-based tasks with faster response times. Importantly, high-quality instruction—especially approaches emphasizing multiple representations, manipulatives, explicit reasoning, andtechnology-enhanced learning—significantly reduces or eliminates gender disparities. Contextual factors such as curriculum structure, cultural norms, and prior mathematical knowledge further mediate these differences. Overall, this review highlights that proportional reasoning is a learnable and malleable competence, suggesting that gender-responsive instructional design plays a crucial role in fostering equitable mathematical understanding
