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The Myth of the Mathematics Gender Gap

Coryoth writes "The widely held belief that there is disparity in the innate mathematical abilities of men and women has been steadily whittled down in recent years. The gender gap in basic mathematics skills closed some time ago, and recently the gap in high school mathematics has closed up as well, with as many girls as boys now taking high school calculus. Newsweek reports on a new study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that begins to lay to rest the remaining argument that it is at the highest levels of mathematics that the innate differences show. Certainly men dominate current academia, with 70% of mathematics Ph.D.s going to men; however that figure is down from 95% in the 1950s. Indeed, while there remain gaps in achievement between the genders, the study shows that not only are these gaps closing, but the size of the gap varies over differing cultures and correlates with the general degree of gender inequality in the culture (as defined by World Economic Forum measures). In all, this amounts to strong evidence that the differences in outcomes in mathematics between the genders is driven by sociocultural factors rather than innate differences in ability."

5 of 588 comments (clear)

  1. I can't resist either. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Since my boyfriend isn't at home right now can you stick my iPhone and your dick up my butt?

  2. If women don't know math.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    If women don't know math they might fuck up recipes.

  3. I'm a man... by dr_wheel · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science.

  4. Re:Another one bites the dust by Grishnakh · · Score: -1, Troll

    Having children is a pretty damned important accomplishment for the future of our species. In most modern cultures, having two or fewer children per woman is the norm. Without some women having a third child, humans have no future.

    Don't be ridiculous. First, having a child is not an "accomplishment". Any female can do it by just opening her legs for a man. That's about as much an accomplishment as me taking a dump.

    Secondly, women don't need a third child for humans to have a future. In case you haven't noticed, there's over 7 billion of us humans now, and the number is rapidly rising despite there not being nearly enough resources for everyone. If everyone around the world could only have 1 child per couple, we could cut that number down to a more reasonable number in 50 years, and then people could return to having 2-4. But in many 3rd world countries, having 6-14 kids seems to be normal, so as long as that continues, we're going to have severe population problems.

  5. Re:Is that because by FooRat · · Score: 0, Troll

    Or maybe boys aren't pushed as hard anymore to truly excel. Perhaps since that would be 'offensive'.

    The title "The Myth of the Mathematics Gender Gap" is nonsensical, because the gap is an existing *fact* that even the article admits! - even after all these decades of feminism, men *still* outperform women in this field - the gap itself thus cannot be said to be a myth at all, the *only* thing still in question is the *cause* of the gap. The title is clearly biased, as it attempts to give the impression there is no gap when clearly there is. When they say "the myth of the gap", only if we're careful will we interpret that very loosely as having been intended to state "the myth that men are intrinsically better" ... but this is not what is stated at all, and it suggests a bias that reveals an agenda - the submitter wants people to misread that as "the gap does not exist" - i.e. something completely false.

    The title of the blog post itself is just "Sharon Begley: The Math Gender Gap Explained ", so the bias may be at the submitter level.