--- Barbara Lamar <shabrika@juno.com> wrote:
> Our hypotheses are: 1. that more women than men
> hold non-scientific
> beliefs; and 2. that in general males tend to be
> more interested in
> mathematics and science than women.
>
> I know there have been studies supporting the 2nd
> hypothesis; I'm not
> sure about the first. Unanswered questions include:
> 1. If either of the
> above hypotheses is true, what might be the
> explanation? 2. Would it be
> desirable to change the situation--eg. to target
> young girls for extra
> training in scientific areas?
Following is the summary from:
Findings from The Condition of Education 1997: Women
in Mathematics and Science
< http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97982.html >
Women have made important advances in education over
the last few decades, closing the gender gap in the
level of educational attainment among younger women
that existed 20 years ago. In fact, for several years,
women have been awarded the majority of associate’s,
bachelor’s, and master’s degrees. However, a gender
gap still exists with respect to mathematics and
science, and it widens as students climb the education
ladder. Although boys and girls have similar
mathematics and science proficiencies at age 9, a gap
begins to appear at age 13. At age 17, there is some
evidence that the gender gap in mathematics and
science has narrowed over time, although a substantial
gap remains. Internationally, a gender gap in science
is common across countries at grade 8, while it is
less evident in mathematics.
Even though girls are less likely than boys to aspire
to careers in science or engineering as early as grade
eight, boys’ and girls’ attitudes toward mathematics
and science appear to be similar up to grade 10 (a
time when the attitudes of boys and girls have already
diverged in other large industrialized countries).
Among U.S. 12th-graders, however, a gender gap in
attitudes is apparent in science.
The mathematics and science courses that women and men
take in high school are similar, with the exceptions
that women remain less likely than men to study
physics but are more likely to take chemistry. Among
students who do not take mathematics or science in
their senior year, women are more likely than men to
say that they did so either because others advised
them that they did not need those courses or because
they disliked the subject matter.
While women are just as likely as men to go to college
immediately after high school, from the start they are
less interested in majoring in mathematics and
science. Although women tend to major in different
subjects than men in college, some of these
differences have narrowed over time. The mathematics
and science fields continue to be areas where the
gender gap remains large. Women are far less likely
than men to earn bachelor’s degrees in computer
science, engineering, physical sciences, or
mathematics.
Even though women make up about half of the labor
market, they are both underrepresented in jobs in
scientific fields and are paid less than men. Some of
these differences can be explained by differences in
the field chosen, level of experience, and level of
education. Overall, there are still substantial
differences between women and men in mathematics and
science fields, and these differences appear as early
as middle school.
> An observation I made was that from birth boy and
> girl babies are
> generally treated differently, one difference being
> that girl babies are
> more closely protected. I wondered if this early
> protection might
> prevent girls from developing an understanding of
> the way things work
> (eg. if a little girl isn't allowed to play on the
> see-saw she'd lack an
> early grasp of the concept that Work= Force x
> Distance) .
I recall a study involving nurses who were told to
hold babies in their laps. The nurses were made aware
of each baby's gender before they placed them on their
laps. Each nurse was individually observed to hold
what they believed to be female babies close in to
their bodies while the male babies were more likely to
be held out closer to the knees. The actual sex of the
baby was randomly chosen.
* Barriers in the early school years
* Barriers at secondary school level
* Barriers at tertiary level
There's a related article titled:
Why girls turn their backs on a science education?
< http://www.lboro.ac.uk/orgs/opp2000/chap2.htm >
-- Scott
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