Gender equality makes everyone better at math? Hooray!
Dear Friends of Women in Science,
Thanks to Sonia Pressman Fuentes for alerting me to this item. In a blog last month, Ethan Siegel noted first that the gender gap on math scores disappeared in the US, starting at fifth-sixth grades and progressing upwards as time passed until now we have "identical average math scores on the SATs." He didn't stop there. He took on the argument that equal means don't matter. It has been argued, probably most notably by Larry Summers, then President of Harvard, that the bigger scatter of scores, both low and high, for boys was important. It could mean that up in the rarefied echelons at the top of math/science abilities, only the male outliers had outstanding math ability. Girls/women with less scatter would have fewer representatives in this category. At the time, there was some evidence for a larger variance for boys.
Siegel quotes a mythical male professor of STEM fields: '"A-HA," you hear, "69% of the perfect SAT Math scores were achieved by boys, more than twice as many as the girls!" Never mind that in the 1970s, the disparity was 93%-7%, and that girls' performances have been steadily rising. Clearly, girls just can't possibly be as inherently gifted or talented at math as boys, and that's why there are more male physics and math professors.' Siegel, on the other hand, finds it reasonable that societal expectations of girls to be bad at math are being fulfilled, but that over time, they are breaking down. Otherwise, why the huge change?
So what else has changed here? More data, and data from a number of different countries. He quotes the TIMSS exam results on over 100,000 students in 31 countries. In all 31, there was little to no difference in the average scores of boys and girls. The Kane and Mertz study, which we discussed here earlier, also calculated a Gender Equity Index for each country. Siegel says, "It's a weighted measure of the gap between men and women when it comes to things like economic equality, education, and political/economic empowerment. Sweden is highest, with a score of 89, while Yemen is lowest, with a score of 31. (The U.S. comes in 24th, at 74.)" This variable is correlated with high perfomance by both genders!
What about the variance on which Summers relied to explain why there were so many more male science professors at Harvard? In Czech Republic, there was no gender difference in variance. A number of countries had higher variance of boys along with an overall weaker performance. The composite variance comparison for all students DID show about two percent more variance for boys. The US shows 8% higher variance for boys. But the variance between countries was much higher than that between genders. So the overall evaluation of the data convinced the authors, and Siegel, that variance does not explain the disparity. Instead, societal variables, the suggestion that Larry Summers felt was the weakest possibility, appears the strongest influence on it. Siegel's bottom line was: the closer we get to gender equality, the more everyone benefits.
cheers,
Laura
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That's right Phoebe. And a lot of editors want women's views and find it hard to get them. That's the basis of a big push by AAUW to get women's views into the news on a variety of issues they care about, because the editors WANT the op eds. It's time for everyone who cares to give it a try. One thing's important: timing. If you see something egregious in your paper, try to respond that evening so it will have a chance to get published. But you don't have to have an "in" with the paper these days.
Cheers,
Laura
It's time that we all made a commitment to take on the remaining pundits who pontificate about "women can't do math". They had some older studies to support them years ago, but the up-to-date scholarly research finds no evidence that females have less talent for math - even in the US. We should be informing newspapers and journals that they are publishing out-of-date and incorrect information, and doing great harm by perpetuating myths.
I think the change in the US since the 1970s should be analyzed with respect to the shift in the cultural demographics of the country: how do girls from the "old" America (white middle class) compare with the girls of the "new" America (many of Asian descent). The increased influx of immigrants from countries where the disparity between men and women is not as large as it was in 1970s- US could be "improving" the statistics.
BTW: in recent readings it has become clear to me that the ECONOMIC status of a society determines (and, historically, has always determined) the level of participation of women in the economy. The general rule is -- the wealthier a culture, the more likely it is that the women are passive partakers (or, as in ancient Mesopotamia, even sequestered (as in birds in a gilded cage)).
The question is -- how does wealth (distribution) determine society's structure, especially gender roles?
Hi Small Science Woman,
Yes, it was Barbara Whitman and that's exactly what she found. Both men and women chose to major more after that course! I like that idea a lot, and this article echoes the bottom line. Helping women helps all science students.
cheers,
Laura
The country to country variance in that data from the study by Kane and Mertz based on the TIMSS really shows how culture-dependent these scores and their variance are. There's no other way to explain why countries are so different. They all have XX females and XY males, right?
Suchan
Hi Laura,
Didn't you tell us about a physics professor who teaches physics by having people upgrade homes in Colorado for cold-resistance, and both girls and boys are more motivated to pursue physics as a result? This finding resonates with that. Make it better for women and all benefit.
SSW
Hi Helen,
it's so pervasive in our society I'm sure you weren't the only voice she heard with that message. But good that she didn't internalize it.
cheers,
Laura
What good news!
I accidentally mentioned to my daughter when she was in about junior high that it wasn't supposed to be cool for girls to be good at math. I don't think she was too damaged by my foolish statement!
Hi Laura,
I think he's right. The differences shrink all the time due to our efforts and we need to keep working until they disappear. But some of these older male profs have way too much power even still. Our time will come!
best, Lois
