<p>why are girls less mathy and sciency than guys? for example, enough to warrant MIT to apply affirmative action to girls?</p>
<p>I believe it has something to do with the difference between how female and male brains are made/operate.</p>
<p>According to some psychologists, male brains are "better" at spatial and mathematical reasoning, while females tend to dominate with language and communication.</p>
<p>It's very much a cultural issue, and has very little (or perhaps nothing) to do with biology or innate ability.</p>
<p>There's a myriad of reasons. Along with you'llsee's reason, there's also some social stigma as well.</p>
<p>There is some sort of a biological aspect, but it's not everything.</p>
<p>Whether it be peer pressure or even parental pressure (ie a Dad working in his tool shed with his sons but not his daughters), there are dozens of things that influence this.</p>
<p>(I just had to write a 20 pager for my senior women's history seminar on a related topic - women and girls entering/working in engineering).</p>
<p>I know when I do extension programs where we try to get younger kids interested in science, the girls seem to be even more excited by the material than the guys are. I think a lot of it is just societal role models and that they don't want to be the one girl in a class of 20 guys.</p>
<p>It's a big nature vs. nurture debate. Personally, I've never seen it. My math and science classes tend to have more girls than guys (I take top in both). Johnson has a point too. Women aren't "supposed" to be into mechanical things, they're supposed to be humanities based.</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> I'm going to try to get this out politely...</p>
<p>MIT does not use affirmative action towards females in admissions. It has been stated many times in the admissions blogs and on CC that they do not follow this practice. It has been proven that the female applicants are more self-selecting, thus the statistics are that way. Many people falsely attribute this to MIT applying affirmative action towards females. Do a little searching on the blogs and on CC in the MIT forum and you'll find a lot about this.</p>
<p>There is some historical significance to this, but I won't go too far into that. For ages, women weren't allowed to go to college, much less major in "male" subjects such as math and the sciences. Since then, it has simply been a matter of overcoming stereotypes. For decades women have been strongly encouraged to major in more domestic and liberal (lady-like) subjects and because of this there wasn't major opposition until relatively recently. Cultural shifts have lead to the rise of women in power and in those "untouchable" fields. It is a gradual change, but stereotyping and social influences still have a lot to do with it.</p>
<p>By the way, I'm a girl...and I love science, math, and technology.</p>
<p>To add on to technol - you can't deny how daunting it must be to be the only girl in a 200 person science lecture hall. It's taken a long time to start to overcome this sort of thing.
Strictly thinking of engineering (since that's where most of my research was focused on), the majority of engineering schools didn't permit girls in programs until WWII; and some not until the 1960's.</p>
<p>I'm a girl and I love math/science. I think it just depends on your personality and for some reason most girls don't like that sort of stuff. They like social studies classes and classes involving people.</p>
<p>^^ It is true (what technol and Johnson say), although not anymore. When my mom went to engineering school, she was harassed for being a woman to the point that she dropped out (she was the only woman in the school). So if MIT ever did use affirmative action for women, it was back then. It is not taboo anymore though for women to be engineers.</p>
<p>^Fortunately, you're right about today (up to a point).</p>
<p>There's clearly still a few obstacles. I can't imagine going into certain engineering professions just because of the gender imbalance - 9.4% of civil engineers are women.
Here's to BME! (And the fact that I love math and science too much to make a decision based on something like social stigmas).</p>
<p>I think that the notion that there are less women in math and science fields will end with my generation (just going into undergrad), because from what I've seen the numbers are equaling out. Decades of hard work against sexism is really paying off among my peers in my opinion, and this tired stereotype will become irrelevant once my age group reaches the professional level. Or so I think.</p>
<p>^ I'm not disagreeing that there aren't obstacles, but I'm saying that it's not taboo like our parents generation. And especially for our generation, considering the influx of Asians and Indians who tend to get more engineering jobs than whites (I remember reading that somewhere and it makes sense), I think the gap will close even more. </p>
<p>It exists in other aspects of life, too. For example, I apprentice as a plumber and seeing a 17 year old girl show up to do a "man's" job still catches people off guard. But I notice that it surprises older people more than younger, so hopefully the social stigmas are eroding away for all aspects =].</p>
<p>^That's awesome!</p>
<p>I wouldn't necessarily be caught off guard myself, but I would be a tad bit surprised (also because you're only 17).</p>
<p>
[quote]
and this tired stereotype will become irrelevant once my age group reaches the professional level. Or so I think.
[/quote]
...Just like they thought racism would 50 years ago. Not gonna happen so soon.</p>
<p>I can relate with romanigypsyeyes. I'm often the only girl in the shop during robotics, and oh is it challenging at times with the type of stuff that I have to put up with. Fortunately, I can take some of it lightly because I know my friends are just trying to be funny, but for others I know they aren't. I don't see a change happening immediately. Like I said before, even though it appears to have disappears, racism is still very prevalent, just like gender discrimination will be. There is some leveling off in the work force, but that just proves that women are passionate enough about their fields to work in spite of these barriers. I love robotics and technology enough that some gender tension in the workplace won't push me away easily.</p>
<p>Edit: With that last comment I can smell a flame coming...</p>
<p>Yeah, I think it's just that way because of our society...men are supposed to like math and science, girls are supposed to be more "emotional" and enjoy things like literature.
But, I go to a math and science school. And there are PLENTY of brilliant girls here.</p>
<p>I agree...society definitely contributes to why men are more geared toward math and science than women are.</p>
<p>I see no example of that in my school- quite the opposite in fact.</p>
<p>lol gryffon, me too. i do think that MIT employs some form of AA with girls tho, they've never come right out and said they didn't. besides, that's why Caltech has 75% males, because they DONT employ AA to get more girls</p>