News Flash: Math Scores Show No Gap For Girls, Study Find

In early 2005, Lawrence H Summers, the president of Harvard, created a media fiasco when he commented that he believed that women were “intrinsically” less adept at math and science than men. While Summers subsequently resigned, his comments reflected a commonly held belief among the male dominated math and science field. While there are more women going to college today than men, the nation’s top science and engineering schools are still dominated by males. Both Cal Tech and MIT have nearly two male students for every female student. Furthermore, the belief that male students are superior to female students at math and science is neither a new nor held by a small minority. Dr. Hyde, one of the researchers who conducted the research in New York Times article “Math Scores Show No Gap For Girls, Study Finds”, explains that this stereotype is commonly held even among educators.
The argument that women are naturally less able at math is not a new one. The medical, scientific and mathematical education programs in the western world were largely closed to women until the 20th century. Previously, women were believed to be inferior to men in mental capabilities. As educational opportunities for women increased, and they began to enter colleges, women began to break down the barriers and enter many male dominated fields. Yet even today, the upper levels of the math and scientific fields are still dominated by men- creating social and cultural beliefs which continue to discriminate against female mathematicians and scientists.
Today, these baseless judgments can still be found in the beliefs and decisions made by educators and researchers. A 1980 study found that male high school students scored higher than their female equivalents in standardized testing, “proving” male superiority in math. Today, guidance councilors still tell female students to avoid engineering programs, fearful that they will not be able to do the math required. Parents encourage their daughters down career paths which do not require high level math or science skill sets. Even teachers have a bias towards male students, as discovered by the National Science Foundation. In addition to these social pressures, western society has constructed an image of the scientist and mathematician which discourages young women from pursuing their interest in this field. The stereotypical image of a scientist in the west is a white male in a white lab coat, holding a beaker while working among complicated equipment. The stereotypical image of a mathematician is also a while male, with ruffled hair and unstylish clothes, writing complicated equations on a chalk board. If one were to type the word “scientist” or “mathematician” into the Google image search engine, they would find that all the results on the first few pages depict men. Despite all these stereotypes and cultural constructions, research has shown that women are just as adept at math and science as men.


After comparing the SAT scores of 7 million students in 10 states, the researchers found that there was no comparable difference between the math ability of male and female students. The same research was done for the ACT test as well, with the same result. Furthermore, 50% of the undergraduate students enrolled in engineering courses were women in 2007. 47% of students studying in doctoral programs for science and engineering were also women. These two findings show that women are not only as competent as men at math and science, but that they are just as interested in the subject as well. What, then, accounts for the low visibility of women in the mathematical and scientific fields? Why are they so under represented in the nations leading instutions? And where do these discriminatory biases, as expressed by Dr. Summers, arise from?
Richard Adhikari of TechNews believes that social pressures during middle school have an important impact on women who hope to enter the math and science fields. He says “By the eighth grade, girls are turned off enough that they constitute half the number of boys interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics”. In this case, social programming begins to take its toll on many an enterprising young female scientist. Girls are not rewarded for being smart in math or science socially or academically. This has been noted by the Institute of Educational Sciences, which released a guide to encouraging female scientist. Among its suggestions were “Presenting positive female role models in the science field”. In America’s class rooms today, young women are done a serious disservice by teachers who, intentionally or not, fail to encourage their female students to pursue an interest in math or science.
This systematic shaping of female academic desires is clearly results of societies need to create images of male and female, boys and girls. In binary opposition, the male identity can only be understood in opposition to something else. Thus there must be skills and attributes which distinguish one identity from another. In this case, girls are told that they are better at social sciences such as language and English, but are inferior at math and science, while boys are told the opposite. These concepts of male and female are then reinforced socially, shaping what courses boys and girls take, and informing them what they are “good” at, regardless to whether there is any truth in these beliefs.
As Johnson argues in his essay about the patriarchal system, systematic forces are reinforced by individual action. Summers’s comment on female ability in the scientific field gives a clear picture as to the forces which push women towards mediocrity within the mathematic and scientific fields. These stereotypes not only discourage women from taking math and science courses, but also affect women’s ability to get into high level academic institutions. The lack of women in these institutions is then used as evidence to prove that women are not as capable as men. In this way a self reinforcing cycle is created.
This cycle is difficult to break as there are no easy ways to break the stereotype of the male scientist or male mathematician. While women have made large strides forward in such male dominated fields as the military, in many cases they have done so by shattering many stereotypes and proving their detractors wrong. However, the only way to break the stereotypes within the math and science fields will for large numbers of women to join the field and exhibit academic excellence. Yet, social pressures in America today program young women to be interested in other fields.
To combat this programming, educators and parents need to be educated to help remove the myth of male excellence in the classroom. Both boys and girls need to get the same amount of attention in the class room. Furthermore, girls need to be encouraged to take pursue careers in engineering and mathematics. This starts by pushing young women to take higher level math and science courses, as this encouragement will counter social pressures which tell young women otherwise. By fostering the sense that young women are capable at math and science, women will be more confident in their skills.
From a top down perspective, the example of Dr. Summers should show many institutions that they have a serious problem, even among their highly educated staff. Additionally, this is another area which the feminist movement has overlooked. Creating competitions and research grants for female scientists and mathematicians would be an excellent way to promote young women to continue to pursue mathematical and scientific educations and careers.



References
Adhikari, Richard. “Women: IT Needs You - Men: Get Over It”. Technology News, 02/02/2010 http://www.technewsworld.com/story/69247.html?wlc=1271288890&wlc=1271450109

Lewin, Tamar. “Math Scores Show No Gap For Girls, Study Find”. New York Times 25/07/2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/education/25math.html