The Gender Gap Is Closing
Tuesday July 7, 2009
In my work 7 or 8 years ago as a math consultant, one of the concerns to be addressed was the gender gap. A deep focus on teaching for understanding prevailed and ensuring that understanding was in place before moving on to algorithms or procedures. However, research now would suggest that it may not be much of a concern anymore. Women are now earning 48 percent of undergraduate college degrees in math. Having said this, they are still under represented in the fields of physics and engineering. Girls have also caught up with boys in math from the 2nd grade to through to the 11th. The news is encouraging! See the full story at AOL Life and Style.
Comments
Although women are earning 48% of the undergraduate college degrees in math, from what I’ve seen and heard about the figures at my university and others is that the women getting these degrees are mostly getting them in math education which generally requires less challenging and less demanding classes than applied math and pure math degrees require. For example, math education requires graph theory and euclidean geometry, while on the other hand applied math requires real/complex analysis and differential equations (and its more advanced courses). This does not mean every student pursuing math ed is incompetent in higher levels of math, but most of them are. While the women that I have taken pure and applied math classes with and have finished the degree (versus dropping it and settling for a stat degree or math ed degree) are competent in higher level math and hard working, the other women pursuing an undergraduate degree in the field have a much lower understanding in math than I believe is required. Then again, the same is true for a lot of men pursuing a math degree.
To sum it up, I would have to say about 20% of what I would consider competent math majors are women. Unfortunately, I only consider about 40% of math majors competent.
Also, why is the prime focus on getting women and minorities to higher degrees. We should be focusing on merit and wealth (as in smart somewhat-driven poor white boys with above a 3.0 gpa need to be given financial aid and be accepted in to college before a women from a minority and a wealthy family with a 2.3 gpa gets it.)
But not for the reason that you think. It is obvious that you are a white male. I do agree that everything should be based on MERIT and not one’s skin color, but the unfortunate fact remains: White men are STILL the ones that STILL favored ahead of women (of all colors) and men of non-caucasian skin color. I am a white female with a pretty decent GPA and I still have to work twice as hard as ANY white male counter part. I STILL have to prove myself, over and over and over again. And I shouldn’t. No one should.
in response to the last comment:
I would have to agree with you. I believe by how we are raised does affect the gender differences (see an earlier article by deb). By this I mean: “basically women are raised to believe they are inferior to men.” This isn’t true in some cases, but if you doubt this, ask your friends and family about how they were raised, what roles they take at home, and how they are treated by the opposite sex.
For example, there was this girl in my math classes who just graduated (I’m staying behind for one more semester for various reasons) that was very good at math. She was with the top tier of the class, but she was shy and it usually took a couple of us guys encouraging her to go beyond just taking math classes.