Slashdot Mirror
New Study Concludes Math Gender Gap Is Cultural, Not Biological
New submitter germansausage writes "A new study was published today in Notices of the American Mathematical Society, looking at data from 86 countries, to test the 'greater male variability hypothesis' as the primary reason for the scarcity of outstanding women mathematicians. It concludes that cultural and not biological factors are the chief causes (PDF) of the gap in math skills between men and women."
Wearing skirts is also cultural, not biological
I worked on a grant looking at math skills and correlating with language, gender, age, and other factors amongst three population groups (white, hispanic, and navaho). We followed a group of third graders through the fifth grade, and a group of sixth graders through the eighth grade. Very interesting stuff, and at least in my corner of the US it was very obvious that as students moved on in school they liked math less, felt it had less value, and also performed worse on the tests. In the third grade group almost everyone believed that math was important, that they would use it in their jobs, and stated that they liked math. By the eighth grade only a few still felt this way, and of those almost all were boys. I was the programmer, created the test instruments, database for the results, etc, so I never saw the entire set of results, but heard that the young cohort pretty much proved that there was very little gender or cultural bias against math aside from poverty (which interestingly seemed to indicate a dislike of it).
Girl's toys: Plastic tits and the phrase "Math class is tough!"
I still haven't figured out whether dysfunctional society caused the toys or dysfunctional toys caused the society, though.
It was done by a man and involves lots of math.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
I find it interesting how many people are apparently completely willing to accept that women's superiority in language ability is biological.
What do you say we go back to my room and do some math: add you and me, subtract our clothes, divide your legs, and multiply.
I find it interesting how many people are apparently completely willing to accept that women's superiority in language ability is biological.
Nah. It's only better because they get lots more practice.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
In rich worlds 80% of woman pile into 10 of the 120 job categories (Medicine, teaching, public service) while men are more evenly spread out.
Which is also cultural.
Traditional roles take a while to break down. About 100 years ago it was scandalous to even consider a woman going through medical school or writing a scientific thesis. Even in the 1950's the prevailing view among Sci-Fi audience was women were incapable of writing Science Fiction, so we had writers like "James Tiptree, Jr." Women were directed towards nurturing roles, so they could be good mothers when they married and retired from their profession.
Not quite the same today. I've worked with DBAs, Business Analysts and coders who are female. Highly competent professionals for the most part. Glad they didn't settle for less.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
My Christian Comrades,
The Lord tells us that wives should submit to their husbands, and He granted men their greater ability to do math and science to help enforce this view. All of the neo-Nazi bra-burning feminists who wish to bridge this so-called "gap" are merely trying to undermine the Christian values of our nation. This is the way things are supposed to be, so there is no "gap."
Sincerely, Jake
My Fellow Mathematicians,
:)
http://www.purplemath.com/modules/bibleval.htm (cool stuff for math history geeks!)
The Calculus tells us that The Numbers should submit to their domains, and It granted mathematicians their greater ability to do math and science to help enforce this view. All of the neo-Nazi math-burning Luddites who wish to bridge this so-called "gap" are merely trying to undermine the Mathematical values of our scientific establishment. This is the way things are supposed to be, so there is no "gap.", other than the gaps between prime numbers.
Sincerely, The Troll Feeder
PS: I was going to find something witty about the bible calling pi = 3, but then I learned something new today
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
The phrase you are looking for is â feedback loopâ.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Just amazing, what statements you can make about such clear data. Many, many studies to date have shown that male and female abilities in mathematics are roughly the same. Nearly as many have shown support for a higher variance amongst males, meaning there are more stupid and more brilliant men. This has been (and is) used as the explanation for the predominance of men at the very top levels of STEM fields.
So...this paper claims "greater male variability...[is] largely [an] artifact of a complex variety of sociocultural factors".
Look at Figure 1.B. in the paper and read their discussion of it. With three only three exceptions - two of which are outliers for other reasons, all of their data supports the variability hypothesis. The same can be seen in Figure 1.C - with the same three exceptions, all of the variance ratios are above 1, with an average around 1.16.
In the end, their data plainly supports the same conclusions drawn by all of the other studies. The sincere desire to reach a PC conclusion apparently blinds the authors to the plain meaning of their own data.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
There's some of that, and then there's the gross stereotyping on TV. The best thing that parents can do is keep their kids away from kids' shows (or any shows) on TV. Think about it - dads are always portrayed as bumbling nincompoops, attractive girls are either bitchy or bubbleheads, smart kids are always pencil necked geeks, and the cool people are the stupid rebels without a clue.
No wonder our kids adopt those attitudes. You want to be attractive to boys? Be a bubblehead. Want to be cool? Ditch school. GAH!
As for biological factors, It seems to me the distribution curve for men is flatter than for women in most things. You get more insane/evil/retarded men than women. You also get more "ultra genius" men than women.
This is one of the hypotheses explored in the study. They find no support for it.