Women Can't Do the Math?
Some people suggest that women are underrepresented in certain science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields because boys outnumber girls at the very high end of the math test score distribution. In other words, girls' and women's math skills hold them back from pursuing STEM careers.
This argument is not convincing to me for two reasons. First, girls have made large inroads into the ranks of children identified as "mathematically gifted" in the past 30 years, while women's representation in mathematically demanding fields such as physics, computer science, and engineering has not kept pace.
And the second reason - even more compelling than the first, in my opinion - is that the science and engineering workforce is not populated primarily by the highest-scoring math students, male or female. Researcher Catherine Weinberger found that fewer than one-third of college-educated white men in the engineering, math, computer science, and physical science workforce scored higher than 650 on the math section of the SAT, and more than one-third scored below 550 - the math score of the average humanities major.
So even though a correlation exists between high school math test scores and later entry into STEM education and careers, very high math scores are not necessarily a prerequisite for success in STEM fields.
What do you think?
Hi Ilona and Christianne,
I think the analytical section might well correlate too. I had to take GREs for my MFA program last spring and I was astonished at how much of the math part was geometry, something I never used since 10th grade! So I studied Kaplan materials and passed. But the analytical part was thinking and weighing evidence. I had fun with that part!
cheers,
Laura
Hi Laura,
I also first heard about Catherine Weinberger's study in Beyond Bias and Barriers. And I share your curiosity about why it hasn't been published. It seems like a solid piece of research.
Hi Christi,
I like this Weinberger study; I saw it first when Beyond Bias and Borders cited it. I wonder why it still is unpublished. I am pretty sure doubters like John Tierney would claim that as a flaw in what otherwise looks like really solid evidence. Do you know if she plans to publish it at some point? This version is a working paper as of 2005, so it's been cooking a while!
cheers,
Laura
Ilona, you ask a good question about analytical scores. You may be right about that.
One thing that I've found often happens in discussions and articles about STEM is that some people talk about academic scientists and others talk about the entire STEM workforce, and these 2 groups are not that similar. One of the most male-dominated professions is mechanical engineering. I imagine Catherine Weinberger's study included many mechanical engineers since it's a pretty big field. Her research shows that extremely high math scores don't characterize this group, so that tells us to look beyond gender differences in mathematical achievement for reasons for the small numbers of women in STEM.
Thanks, Christianne Corbett. Those are wonderful data to know, and they are quite obvious after one hears them. I really appreciate having this info.
Thanks Christi--you show an interesting statistic about predictors for entry in to STEM careers that i think we should all talk about more with everyone, regardless of their interest in the gender stats. It seems it would help everyone have a more accurate understanding of scientists and science professions in general. Also, your post makes me wonder, is there a correlation between GRE "analytical" scores and entry into STEM careers? My guess is that those skills are much more tightly correlated than verbal or quant.I know it's a cliche, but it bears repeating that Albert Einstein was actually terrible at straight-ahead computational math. We should tell our students this as much as we can, while we enhance their perceptions of what a scientist is with vetted, real and current data like those you report here.
