There is no difference in their ability to comprehend and execute maths and science subjects.
According to recent reports: The United States ranks 31st on the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index and is tied for 21st on Social Watch's Gender Equity Index. Still, the test scores of U.S. high school girls have reached parity with those of boys, and half the undergraduate math degrees awarded in this country go to women.
But something happens to women at higher levels of studies where the number of women drop off and they are under-represented in the PhD and in academic careers in science. The old beliefs that women are not hard-ired for high level maths and science appear to discourage or prevent women from being able to access high levels of education in this area thus making it a self-fulfilling prophecy of the pundits.
Society loses in this transaction. This is a problem, and not just from an equality standpoint, says math professor Rebecca Goldin, an associate professor of mathematics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and director of research at the university's Statistical Assessment Service. "Scientific and mathematical progress relies on the best people doing their best work," she says. "If you discourage half the population [from doing science], then that part is simply not in your pool of who's the best, so the best science doesn't happen."
Professor Goldin said, forget about biological inference about gender differences in understanding maths and science "You have to look at the data. And the data all seem to be saying that men and women who make it to the point of entering the academic world have roughly equal intellectual potential, and that the differences between them are shaped by sociocultural influences, not biology."
Read more:
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/753523/evidence%3A_there%27s_no_biological_reason_for_gender_gap_in_math_and_science/#paragraph4
According to recent reports: The United States ranks 31st on the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index and is tied for 21st on Social Watch's Gender Equity Index. Still, the test scores of U.S. high school girls have reached parity with those of boys, and half the undergraduate math degrees awarded in this country go to women.
But something happens to women at higher levels of studies where the number of women drop off and they are under-represented in the PhD and in academic careers in science. The old beliefs that women are not hard-ired for high level maths and science appear to discourage or prevent women from being able to access high levels of education in this area thus making it a self-fulfilling prophecy of the pundits.
Society loses in this transaction. This is a problem, and not just from an equality standpoint, says math professor Rebecca Goldin, an associate professor of mathematics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and director of research at the university's Statistical Assessment Service. "Scientific and mathematical progress relies on the best people doing their best work," she says. "If you discourage half the population [from doing science], then that part is simply not in your pool of who's the best, so the best science doesn't happen."
Professor Goldin said, forget about biological inference about gender differences in understanding maths and science "You have to look at the data. And the data all seem to be saying that men and women who make it to the point of entering the academic world have roughly equal intellectual potential, and that the differences between them are shaped by sociocultural influences, not biology."
Read more:
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/753523/evidence%3A_there%27s_no_biological_reason_for_gender_gap_in_math_and_science/#paragraph4
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