Comments on: Are Boys Better Than Girls At Maths?

By: Red

Red — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 06:25:00 +0000

When it comes to the 'who is a high acheiver and gets the job?' question a whole lot of new issues kick in.

What are the systemic biases of the employers/grant givers? (eg are males more likely to hire other males for top end jobs? With roughly 2-6% of CEO positions going to women in large corporations in OECD countries despite similar experience and qualifications - its got to be a factor)

What is the definition of high acheivement? (eg must you able to have time to have a drink with the boys after work when you have a family etc?) (and this has been true in a lot of my workplaces)

While the school myth appears to be knocked out of the water the definition of what actually constitues 'top end' and 'high achievement' given current societal biases still needs some work IMHO. Cheers

By: Sayu

Sayu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:56:00 +0000

Pertaining to women's interest and performance in Math, here's some food for thought:
http://alumni.umich.edu/wordpress/?p=107

By: JBaud00111

JBaud00111 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:05:00 +0000

I'm female and also a professional engineer. I was lousy at math in grade school, but all that was, really, was memorization: 1+1=2; 2x2=4; etc. I didn't 'get it' till I was almost in geometry. For me, I became fascinated with the relations between angles, lines and how numbers fit in and represented these things. I just kept excelling at it after that. I attribute much to my parents for getting me to that point without letting me already have labeled myself as 'not a math person.' I might not have put the effort into it, if I'd even tried it to begin with otherwise, and I would never have discovered that I like it.

By: Rupert

Rupert — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:50:00 +0000

I find it very interesting that people even question that women and men are not intellectually equal. This is just absurd! I hold that feral children have shone, quite well, that we are a product of our environment. If your environment had declared for centuries that you were inferior it would take a very strong and individualistic person to overcome these ingrained ideas and go on to accomplish great things. Our world needs to take quick action in educating people on equality and everyones ability to accomplish anything. Unlike ethnic minorities sexual discrimination affects the better(this is what my father would say) half of our planet

By: Julie Lu

Julie Lu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:35:00 +0000

This was a very good read, but I'm with Jill on the title. I believe part of the reason why we have stereotypes is what questions are asked or what examples are given.

Last semester I had a statistics professor whose examples were almost always fictitious studies with men and women in which "men scored higher". Higher in what? I thought, idiocy? Sexism? I know that's mean, but our class was almost 70% women and I couldn't believe he would say that.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:56:00 +0000

maya857 said...

"I think all things must be taken into consideration, Hrvoje, and there is such a thing as subtle digs at women and African Americans which are, in my opinion, worthy of termination."

Sorry, I had to laugh - that's a beautiful slip for a discussion on people being taken out of context. :-)

By: Jeremy (PsyBlog author)

Jeremy (PsyBlog author) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:33:00 +0000

Jahed, thanks for the link which is very welcome.

But no thanks for your tone, which isn't.

I guess you didn't get as far as reading the paragraph that says:

"This study won't end the debate, though, because as Professor Hyde points out, even the hardest questions on this test are still not complex enough to stretch the most talented students and really uncover whether a gender difference exists at the extreme end of the distribution. Other studies continue to find that at the more gifted end, boys outperform girls in maths."

Jake, this paragraph addresses your point as well.

Hrvoje, I added the phrase 'one reason' before 'men do better in maths-related...'

By: Jahed Momand

Jahed Momand — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:12:00 +0000

This couldn't be more wrong. Did you actually read the paper?

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/07/summers-vindica.html

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:33:00 +0000

One fact that the author in this study brushes over is that in absolute numbers there are much more male high achievers than there are female.

You must be a high achiever to get a job in math related fields. Hence males are over represented in those fields.

By: Hrvoje Simic

Hrvoje Simic — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:20:00 +0000

@Jeremy: You say you adjusted the emphasis, but I haven't noticed any change in text?