<p>(Not sure where to post this so I'll post it here. If it needs to be somewhere else please move it.)</p>
<p>My school recently wrote this article because this is a major issue at our school:</p>
<p>I'm not sure if everything in the article holds true for all schools however. What do you guys have to say?</p>
<p>Those trends aren’t just happening at your high school. But high school is way too late to address it. It’s already established by 6th grade. We have various activities at our middle school. Math team? Mostly boys. Robotics? Boys. Writing contest? Mostly girls. Choir? We have girls singing the boys’ parts because the 3 or so boys in the choir cannot possibly be heard over 60 girls.</p>
<p>I’m disappointed that the blogger didn’t do any research and compare Paly’s gender numbers against at the national numbers of AP students. For example, while AP students in the physical sciences (Chem and Physics) tend towards a much higher numbers of males nationally, the same is not true for AP Bio (unlike PAly). </p>
<p>The gender imbalances in those AP courses do not seem to be all that different from those in college majors that students in those AP courses often target. E.g. math and physics tend to be heavily male, while psychology tends to be heavily female.</p>
<p>Sorry to say, but I don’t see anything wrong with this “gender imbalance”. Should we be “balanced” in all aspects of life?</p>
<p>@WINDyyyy, I think the concern is that STEM is seen as a gateway to better jobs and higher incomes and that qualified women and minorities are being discouraged starting from a very early age, their confidence is undermined, and many are made to feel that they cannot be successful in these areas. If it’s truly just a difference in interests, then I don’t see a problem, but I think that interest is often partly a matter of feeling competent and accepted. This is of course also an issue for boys, but the areas in which they are underrepresented also tend to be low paying, so society doesn’t look at those opportunities as being as important to provide equal access for.</p>
<p>mathyone,</p>
<p>I am a girl and a minority. Thus I don’t want any affirmative action in STEM. STEM fields are academic powerhouses, where smart people meet smart people. I don’t want a robotics club to be converted into another PC club to discuss feminist issues. </p>
<p>STEM is a gateway to better jobs and higher incomes because it attracts smart people. Don’t mess with it, please! If I’ll need intellectual diversity, I’ll work at Walmart. </p>
<p>@WINDyyyyy The concern is that girls who would otherwise excel in those fields are discouraged from pursuing them, for whatever reason. A gender imbalance suggests that there’s either something inherently different about men and women that women aren’t “smart enough” to handle the STEM field or there’s something about the system that makes women less likely to follow that path. The problem is when girls are discouraged from entering a technical field (because they don’t see any female role models in those jobs, because people tell them that’s for boys, because girls are automatically shunted towards lower level classes, etc), and this discouragement can happen early on, which makes it that much harder for them to choose the path later. Not all girls who don’t end up in a STEM field do so because they can’t cut it–many either choose a different path or don’t even try. It’s like the studies that show that girls that are primed with their gender before an exam do worse than girls who aren’t primed with their gender, while boys do better. It’s stuff like that that make people worried that it’s something about the culture and not actual ability that are causing these findings.</p>
<p>And what is concerning about comments like yours is that it suggests that women are inherently less intelligent and less productive (because it sounds like you’re associating encouraging more girls to enter STEM fields with having less intelligent people in the field and making it all about “feminist issues”). I’m sure that’s not what you meant, but it’s certainly the way that it comes off. </p>
<p>@WINDyyyy, what I have read, and I have seen it myself, is that in most cases, it’s not a lack of talent, but a lack of confidence or just a feeling of not fitting in. These attitudes are shaped at a fairly early age. Many girls have less self-confidence at something like math even when they are actually doing better. I’ve seen studies on this somewhere and I have seen this happening at my kids’ schools. I think a lot of this depends on the environment. </p>
<p>You mentioned robotics. Encouraging girls to join is hardly the same thing as turning it into a PC feminist club. That’s exactly the kind of attitude we are talking about. From my daughter’s perspective, middle school boys are pretty obnoxious and annoying, and she didn’t want to be the only girl in an activity with all those boys and none of her friends, who are all far more mature, focused, and cooperative than most of those boys. One or two of those boys have made very sexist comments in front of her. These things matter. Her nearly all male robotics team watched as an all-girls team walked off with the first place prize. </p>
<p>70% in favor of one gender is NOT a bad thing. Why is it bad that more boys take AP BC calc, and more girls take AP English? Maybe that’s where their strengths lie? I don’t see the point in trying to make AP classes 50-50 for males-females.</p>
<p>@RunningForLife The author wants to encourage females into math and science related fields. I’m not saying that boys shouldn’t take AP Calc BC or that girls shouldn’t take AP English. Females are usually pushed towards humanity and English classes because that is considered feminine (easy). I’m assuming that a female wanting to take advanced math or science classes would be considered weird by society and refrain from taking them. And if she does take them? Good for her. It’s great if a bunch of guys can do AP Calc, but why shouldn’t girls be in their class too? Yes, in the article there are some girls in the Calc class, but the ratio is hardly near equal. The percentage will never be 50% guys and 50% girls. Girls should be encouraged to enter these classes and not be afraid of more guys in their classroom.</p>
<p>@Runningforlife, I think you are missing the point. It’s not a matter of people following their strengths. It’s a matter of boys who achieve at a certain level being encouraged to pursue STEM and girls who achieve at the same or even at a higher level somehow getting the idea that they aren’t good enough. If a girl is simply interested in other things than STEM, that’s one thing, but to what extent are those interests being shaped by the message that girls aren’t good at STEM or girls don’t belong in STEM? If you can accept that society delivers a message to boys that fashion and ballet aren’t for boys (and the vast majority of them seem to listen to this), why would it be hard to understand that there’s such a message being delivered to girls about STEM?</p>
<p>The higher you go up in math, the more boys( percentage) there are. I don’t think there’s a culture against girls.</p>
<p>@wcao911, you can see anything from overt sexism, to simply a feeling of not fitting in. When my fashionista daughter walks into a room to take a math competition and looks around and sees it’s basically her and 100 mostly-Asian boys, she just might begin to feel that somehow she doesn’t belong in that crowd. When she signs up for robotics and discovers that she’s the only girl in a room packed with boys and all her friends are off doing other things which she could join instead–or else she could hang out with the boys (some of whom she finds incredibly obnoxious)-- and listen to them talking about things like Minecraft which she has no interest in. That can be a tough choice for a kid. Some girls will be put off by this. Those that aren’t might end up in your math class.</p>
<p>The same is true at my high school, though I’m not really sure why. It’s not like girls are shunned for taking an AP science class. I guess a lot has to do with past culture and precedence. I’d really prefer that it end though. Can’t stand my AP English class with 80% blathering girls…</p>