Barbie says, “Math is hard”
In high school there were just as many girls as guys in my AP Biology and Organic Chemistry classes, but fewer hanging out and talking BBS smack at Computer Club. In college the Intro to Computer Science class was pretty balanced, but CS II showed the first signs of a noticeable gender imbalance, skewing toward guys having the majority. I’d go home after classes and log a few hours on Quake, and noticed that my opponents tended to be all men. Usenet newsgroups that focused on cryptography, open source computing, and similar subjects also seemed to have a higher number of male names than female. These days, I show up at electronic music workshops or log into similar forums and am usually one of two or three other girls there. And there’s only a handful of recognized women electronic musicians in the field as opposed to the countless men. Seeing as we’re supposed to be a pretty egalitarian culture, that’s weird, right?
Girls and young women are less likely than boys and young men to agree with the statements “I like mathematics” and “I like science,” in a national survey:
- 40% of girls and 31% of boys said that math is their least favorite subject
- 21% of girls and 17% of boys said that science is their least favorite subject *
Theories abound as to what or who’s responsible, but the facts are that less women choose to take up math and science related professions than men, and the drop off in interest seems to hit in pre-teen and teenage girls.* Since this really bugs me, I did a bit of research and discovered a nonprofit that’s dedicated to making sure that girls pursue their interest in math and science by holding targeted workshops across the country. They’re called the Math Science Network and the program is called Expanding Your Horizons.
I set up part of my online eBay store to donate a portion of the sales of my jewelry line to the Math Science Network, so please consider buying one of these special items to support the future of girls in Math and Science.
What are your thoughts? What’s responsible for the gender imbalance in Math and Science? Have you had similar or different experiences than I have? Post your ideas in the comments.
* “Girls and Math and Engineering” Girls Inc.
RELATED POSTS
Im in ur LOLoweens
Laptop Musician T-Shirts
Gnerdy Jewelry: Wear your favorite technology from your ears
The Bachelor Party for Andrew Lochhead: All Girl DJs
The 5 Way Path: Create a track out of only five audio samples
Microsoft, let’s just be friends. It’s for the best.
I teach 7th grade science, so I see this on a daily basis. The girls all gravitate more towards the life sciences. My theory is that it is a more empathetic science. It is dedicated to studying people and what makes people work (and can directly improve people’s lives), whereas the physical sciences study seemingly cold, emotionless subjects like chemistry and math. Most girls don’t identify with those, but biology comes across as more personal. I’m probably completely wrong, of course.
September 18th, 2007 | #
That’s a pretty good theory, which would also explain why girls love their cellphones so much–they enable them to communicate with other people.
September 19th, 2007 | #
Also I think there’s something to be said about the clique-ish nature of young girls–they feel desperate to conform so that they are accepted by other girls, which would also explain why they tend to act similarly as a group.
Me, I gave up early trying to be accepted by other girls and just went home to play computer games.
September 19th, 2007 | #
It could be also that boys don’t always accept their science-seeking female counterparts as peers- they become adversarial or try to have sex with them. I can see how that could be discouraging…
September 19th, 2007 | #
Hmm, I always get asked about this and really have no theories. I have been playing video games since I can remember, albiet not as obsessively as my male friends, and I really didn’t care much about fashion and makeup and all that crap growing up. I wasn’t accepted by other girls much either when I was young so had many more male friends than female, and although I wasn’t a computer nerd until I got into university, I did have a lot more interest in technology that most girls I knew. As teens, I think most girls want to be “normal” so they would shy away from anything that would make them stand out. Maybe? I dunno.
September 19th, 2007 | #
I don’t think it’s a question of responsibility, and probably more a question of genetics. We as humans strive to expand our minds and evolve beyond our base instincts, but I think there’s a lot of validity in genetics on a personal level - not necessarily an evolutionary one.
Most females in our species are not genetically wired to do math-based work. Not that their brains can’t handle it, they just don’t have the predisposition. Most males are not wired to have strong, ‘motherly’, empathatic feelings, but not because they’re not capable of doing so.
Any program that encourages the female or male to explore alternate ways of thinking - using different parts of their brain than they may be ‘programmed’ to use - is cool by me!
September 20th, 2007 | #
i have noticed a quite a few young girls coming to my shows and sending me emails, i do think that it’s taken awhile but as technology becomes much more ingrained in our lives, girls are experimenting more and it’s not so abnormal for a girl to be into computers and stuff. i’m interested to see if there are more women making em in the future, and more in sciences. i found this stat interesting- http://tinyurl.com/28o4ae.
i am never sure about the genetics argument, i do accept that some things are hard-wired, but when talking about brain power there are no differences, and i think it does come down to conditioning at that point. i know PLENTY of guys who suck at math…. ;P
September 20th, 2007 | #
just remove the period after the tinyurl. ooops. damn punctuation habits.
September 20th, 2007 | #
Dear Liz,
First of all, I wanted to tell you that I’m an American living in the Middle East these past 15 years, and that I teach Grade 3 at an American school. I was referred to this post on your blog by a Saudi reader that I have, who read my post (s) on overcoming math anxiety, and referred me here.
I find your article very interesting, and I had a thought while reading it abo ut your question to why girls gravitate out of math and math-oriented sciences at about age 14. As a kid, I always hated math (especially subtraction and long division, and I felt lazy about doing those things). But when I really started to have a problem was Algebra I. I “passed,” but never “got” it. I am beginning to think there were a lot of others who never “got” it either. And while I enjoyed Chemistry, I hated the math part of it. I love science so much I might have become a theoretical physicist IF I had liked math, and was good at it. But, having gotten behind in Algebra I (and just struggling through Algebra II, JUST so that when I went to college, I’d never have to take another math course), it closed off a lot of avenues for me.
I became a stock broker and performed very adequately in business math (even if I worried inside). But later, when I changed careers, and became a teacher, I actually worried about being able to do third-grade story problems in front of the class! After teaching Third Grade for three years, one day an internet IQ quiz popped up. It was mostly math problems. I did very well. I then saw that by teaching, I had had learned to see the story problems in a new way (as I had not before), and my math anxiety went away completely. Now it is actually one of my favorite subjects to teach. I never thought I would see that happen.
Best regards,
Eileen
Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas (in the Middle East)
elementaryteacher.wordpress.com
October 6th, 2007 | #