Girls and math — do we have to add it up for you?


Image via snowfreak91287.

News item both for gloating, and gratuitous excuse to show you the hot photo above. NYT — Math Scores Show No Gap for Girls, Study Finds, snip:

Three years after the president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers, got into trouble for questioning women’s “intrinsic aptitude” for science and engineering — and 16 years after the talking Barbie doll proclaimed that “math class is tough” — a study paid for by the National Science Foundation has found that girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests.

Although boys in high school performed better than girls in math 20 years ago, the researchers found, that is no longer the case. The reason, they said, is simple: Girls used to take fewer advanced math courses than boys, but now they are taking just as many.

“Now that enrollment in advanced math courses is equalized, we don’t see gender differences in test performance,” said Marcia C. Linn of the University of California, Berkeley, a co-author of the study. “But people are surprised by these findings, which suggests to me that the stereotypes are still there.”

The findings, reported in the July 25 issue of Science magazine, are based on math scores from seven million students in 10 states, tested in accordance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The researchers looked at the average of the test scores of all students, the performance of the most gifted children and the ability to solve complex math problems. They found, in every category, that girls did as well as boys. (To their dismay, the researchers found that the tests in the 10 states did not include a single question requiring complex problem-solving, forcing them to use a national assessment test for that portion of their research.)

Janet Hyde, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study, said the persistent stereotypes about girls and math had taken a toll.

“The stereotype that boys do better at math is still held widely by teachers and parents,” Dr. Hyde said. “And teachers and parents guide girls, giving them advice about what courses to take, what careers to pursue. I still hear anecdotes about guidance counselors steering girls away from engineering, telling them they won’t be able to do the math.” (…read more.)

Also — I shall now plug the psychosexual reassurances of metric. “Apart from the actual benefits of metric, 10 centimeter stilettos and a 30 centimeter penis sounds a lot more interesting than 4 inch stilettos and a 12 inch penis.”

4 Comments - COMMENTARY is DESIRED

  1. hate to point this out, but the photo is more of physics than math. quantum mechanics, classical mechanics (mostly), “maxwell’s equations” (actuallly hevisidesfun history there, worth a read), and what looks like simple transformations expressed to be used in gravitational work.

    but i do know quite a few incredibly good mathematicians who are women. and three hot, hot, HOT mathematicians (us, german, and romanian) who are frighteningly good and productive, which is a rare combination in any gender. you might be interested in the history of emily noether, too. she fundamentally changed how many people think about conservation laws in physics, gave them a solid mathematical underpinning, and all that with full knowledge that she could never be more than a low-level instructor at the time. a drive like that has no gender and shows the amazing side of any person.

  2. It makes me laugh when people talk about boys or girls being better at certain subjects than others, obviously in the ‘old’ days girls just never studied these subjects. When you do a fair survey you see that gender is irrelevant, and that the only reason its an issue is because just like with our racism, we are also still a sexist society, we just pretend like we aren’t.

    Still, its nice to know we are getting close to women being treated equally and properly.

    Love ya girls!

  3. Hooray for smart geeky girls who can amazingly be other things (silly, loud, pretty, athletic, musical, quirky, etc). AT THE SAME TIME! As a math chick (among other things!), I am glad to see what we all knew would eventually occur happening sooner rather than later. Give girls the same opportunities, encouragement, protection from scorn, tools and they will excel. Larry Summers can kiss my calculator! :P

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