Girls worse at math? No way, new analysis shows

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/06/01/girls_worse_at_math_no_way_new_analysis_shows/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed5

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Girls can do just as well at math as boys -- even at the genius level -- if they are given the same opportunities and encouragement, researchers reported on Monday.

Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradicts studies showing girls can do as well as boys on average in math -- but cannot excel in the way males can.

snip:

"We conclude that gender inequality, not lack of innate ability or 'intrinsic aptitude', is the primary reason fewer females than males are identified as excelling in mathematics performance in most countries, including the United States," Janet Hyde and Janet Mertz of the University of Wisconsin in Madison wrote in their report.
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Society is unfair to both boys and girls and pigeonholes them into gender roles very early on. On the one hand, there are more girls than ever getting into college, but on the other hand, women still earn less than men.

And just think of how high Mrs. Duggar can count!! :party:

I think she can also count how many times her hubby cheated on her too.

:rofl:

6th & 7th grade. Ms. McKeller has a PHD in Math and really relates to young ladies that math is ok.
Yes you can be smart and an actress (Winnie from Wonder Years)

from taking advanced math and science. Even when I was in college (late 80s/early 90s), my math and finance classes were mostly men.

"I like shopping!"

Gee, I wonder where that cultural discrepancy in performance comes from?

Sorry!

--d!

And I love the concept behind them.

Plus, she's a really nice person! (Had the opportunity to play some "broom hockey" with her a few years ago...) :)

... in a boys' Catholic high school.

you got my attention! :thumbsup:

All girls. Go figure. :shrug:

I've been telling them that since they were babies - they believed me :D

thankful, far better than their mother!

My husband is an engineer and has always tutored the kids at the upper levels which seems to have made a positive difference. Our boys seem to show the same abilities, but of course they've had the same opportunities. We've been lucky to have some great math teachers along the way as well.

I am one so I know I can help them when they get to the heavy stuff.

:evilgrin:



Summers' remarks on women draw fire
January 15, 2005

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/17/summers_remarks_on_women_draw_fire/

The president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, sparked an uproar at an academic conference Friday when he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers. Summers also questioned how much of a role discrimination plays in the dearth of female professors in science and engineering at elite universities.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/02/AR2008120202724.html

Summers was boneheaded to say what he said, in the way that he said it and considering the job that he held. But he probably had a legitimate point -- and the continuing uproar says more about the triumph of political correctness than about Summers's supposed sexism.

He was also the reason Cornell West left Harvard.

On average, mostly undergrad level course work.

I've always chalked it up to the girls being slightly more likely to follow my suggestions (things like "do the fucking homework", and the like).

:sarcasm:

Those who can count in binary and those who cannot. :evilgrin:

:thumbsup:

I used to be very interested in it until I started to see the ridiculous and obvious biased assumptions it was based on.

They had to provide security for him and rightly so. During his "dog and pony show" he made a snide correlational comment that highly successful men marry TALL women. ... Well those are fighting words for me. :P However, I didn't protest but merely thought "WHAT AN ASS!"

These types of people (smug intellectuals) only serve to divide the human race into waring factions.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947407,00.html

BTW as much as I admire Jonathon Turley's insight, I also recently noted a glimpse of "the callous academic snob" he can be when he doesn't check himself. :(

That it always seems to confirm the socio-cultural orthodoxy is suspicious as Hell.

refuse to evolve. what sense does that make. not even that the supposed evolutionary scientists have a clue and it is all guess and assumption, and many of the assumption proclaimed can be flat out argued.

dude....

be proud.

wink

isnt it the truth.

:applause:

And send one to the "esteemed" Mr. Silvio Berlusconi. CC to his divorce lawyer.

Best. Ironic. Bingo. Card. Ever.

--d!

:rofl:

Absolutely!

In Japan, girls are sterotypically considered better at math, presumably because women are expected to handle the household finances.

I'm male and good at math, but my daughter at 13 scares me she's so good. She's got the genes (presumably) but has been doing Kumon math enrichment since she was about four.
Lots of practice.
Girls rock at math and anything else they want to do.

Crow

IMHO they learn just fine, they don't have the motivation to use their math skills until they have to keep the baby fed while the hubby is going out drinking.

especially since women are outperforming men in school these days.

reminds me of an overeager politically correct friend back in college who, when presented with a photo of a newborn, said, "look at the cute baby woman!"

but lets not let that stifle another "girls rule, boys drool" article.

where does it hurt, anywhere, anyone, any gender to hear a study dismissing an inadequacy with a simple "just as well". not girls are better, not superior. merely saying girls do just as well = girls rule, boys drool?

I always chocked it up to gender inequality. Apparently that study does a 180.

"I noticed that more girls were excelling in my math classes than my fellow males. "

Or was there something else driving your perception?

It wasn't a strong tendency, but none the less, it was there. I don't understand it, I just know it existed.

That way you can expound on the replies of people who say that girls have an easier time in school, while giving a nod to the guys who struggled through school.

I never mentioned the social aspects of school. That is another story all together.

I am speaking of only the academic portion. It seemed to me that a lot of teachers treated the two genders differently with a lot of the priority given to girls.

Except for my econ teacher. He was a sexist asshole who only looked at male input as legitimate.

At my university, it seems as though the professors don't give a crap who you are, they only care if you can say something intelligent.

Once more we see confusion between individual performance/achievement co-mingled with group norms, then making matters worse by not even comparing the same things. There has never been a serious claim that individual girls can not do well at math, only that "on average" boys do slightly better at tasks generally considered to be part of "math", particularly in areas such as spatial concept formation. Conversely, girls "on average" test slightly better in various verbal areas.

As Thurstone, et al worked to standardize tests of intelligence and ability and define what was being measured, differences among various groups were of particular interest. Was there a bias in the instrument, the test, or was there a real difference in the performance by various groups or maybe something else such as self-selection of tested populations (a major factor in SAT by State results)?

In many cases, the differences between the performance of two groups is more profound among those performing poorly, rather than among those performing well. For example, the reason that "on average" girls do better on tests of verbal skills might reflect that there are more boys who have learning disabilities affecting verbal skills.

Trying to make sense out of all this is impossible with societal studies such as the one referenced. Even trying to do much simpler studies assessing education and the quality of schools is an extremely difficult task.

Our best chances for unraveling these problems will combine things like PET brain scans, new findings on brain chemistry, and mapping of genetic components to understand what is going on at very basic levels. Until we understand things at that level, the rest of this is about as valid as studying the bumps on people's heads.

When I was in school, the girls were *ALWAYS* better at math than the boys.

But :toast:

"the girls were *ALWAYS* better at math than the boys." I have a problem with you, for saying that. Can I add that I have doubts about Clintonista2's integrity as a DUer.

If you want a 100% guaranteed slap-your-knees laugh, you MUST read his papers explaining why Black people are less intelligent than White people, and why Asians outclass all others. It's because the bigger the penis, the more interest in sex and the less interest in learning. And since Black men have the largest penises, statistically speaking, they would rather get their mack on than crack a book.

Not only did he write that with a straight face, he built a career on it.

Yep ... Peer Reviewed and all.

--d!