<p>Bridging</a> the Gender Gap: Encouraging Girls in STEM Starts at Home | Alicia Chang</p>
<p>Just wanted to remark that I have noticed this post, and hope to come back later on to comment.</p>
<p>Too bad I only have a son. My mother flunked out of college in the late 1940’s- poor study habits and girls weren’t supposed to take the math and science she liked. We were minorities in Chemistry and Medical school- amazing how numbers have jumped since the early 1970’s when we were women’s libbers. Now women have so many more mentors in STEM fields. I found very few and had a small peer group compared to the numbers I see getting the same degrees now. I was encouraged to do whatever I wanted to do by teachers and parents. Met a lot of discrimination along the way- not enough to bother with lawsuits but enough to affect my career once done with training. How nice it would be to not have to fight against the system. My generation helped pave the way for today’s young scientists and physicians.</p>
<p>PS- I know it is not gender that I prefer the biological spectrum of Chemistry to the physical while physician H and S (math and comp sci majors) both like math, physics and computers since I knew women with their interests a long time ago.</p>
<p>As a female engineer (PhD 1991) I found this article very interesting. I’ve always credited my chemist father for encouraging my love of science and math, but my mom who never went to college played an equal role. And growing up with a brother two years older was likely another fortunate influence. I remember playing for hours with Lincoln Logs and Legos, building “indestructible” snow forts, watching space missions on TV and doing science experiments at the kitchen table. My brother and I did almost everything together - sometimes it involved Barbies and GI Joes, but more often we were building something - so the family conversations were very gender neutral and I grew up thinking I could study and learn anything. My all-time favorite toy was a truck that launched rubber missiles. We had no idea what a “parabolic arc” was, but at 5 and 7 years old we knew we needed to consider the distance, angle and force of launch when aiming at our Lincoln Log towers!
Fast forward several decades to when hubby (also PhD engineer, with his dad and mom also the same) and I have two young girls, and no boys. Of course there were Barbies, American Girl dolls and the like, but we made sure there were also lots of Legos and remote-control cars and electronic spy gear that one daughter seemed to crave. And we talked about numbers a lot, so much that the younger one picked up division on a car ride while the older one was explaining what she learned in school that day. The younger was only in first grade when she piped up “I get it. Division is like multiplication backwards.” The same daughter, now a senior in AP Physics, recently remarked she was shocked the class average on a test was an F. They had to apply what they learned to solve problems rather than simply solve equations and our daughter loved it.
I’m sure our parenting is/was far from perfect (we certainly have had our share of teen issues), but it is interesting to reflect on some of our choices and how they may have influenced our daughters. People used to jokingly ask us if we did flash card drills with them. We never did anything formal, rather it was a constant, subtle exposure to math and science through play and family conversations.
(FYI, elder daughter is on track to finish BS in engineering in three years, with minors in Spanish and music. The younger plans to double major in engineering and music.)</p>
<p>I’ve always credited doing “New Math” in fourth and fifth grade in a one room school house with my love of math. It was a completely different way of looking at numbers. All that set theory! I also spent a lot of time with my brothers playing with legos, blocks and building cities in our backyard. Is it any wonder I became an architect?</p>
<p>I have boys. The oldest took to math as a toddler. (He figured out multiplication looking at a clock made for kids to learn how to tell time - it had minutes labeled as well - ie 5, 10, 15 etc.) The younger one showed no interest in math and remains a bit shaky on his multiplication tables, though IQ tests show he’s got the capacity to be good at math. (He did AP Calc BC as a senior, so he was no slouch in that department, just not as advanced or interested as his brother.)</p>
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<p>Based on my perusing on cc, I’d suggest just the opposite. Plenty of cc moms underestimate their daughter’s math ability. Just check out all of the spring posts, ‘I was bad at math and did ok, so why should my D take AP Calc, when she wants to major in journalism or psych or comm (or other softer major)’?</p>
<p>I think this article raises a good point. I am currently applying to physics PhD programs (theoretical solid state) and I remember that my love of math and science started when I played educational computer games. While some of them were made for girls, some of the others seemed like they probably would attract a mostly male audience. It was these ones I liked the most. One in particular had cave-like imagery. I also really liked the magic school bus inside the earth game.
Apart from these games, most of my science toys were based around rocks and minerals. Something that was lacking however, were electrical toys. When I was in AP physics in high school, we would have labs in which we were given electronics without directions. Naturally, the boys would work in three or four groups and all five or so girls would come together and try to figure out how to use the tools. Looking back, the lack of instructions seems very unfair as it favors students who had previous experience with electronics (in our society these students are predominately male) and was very discouraging for those who did not know how to use these tools. I think small things like this contribute to the incredibly high attrition rate of women in physics because it’s just another way to spark self doubt. Interestingly enough, the only real physical tools I use now are computers as I have been doing theoretical research for the last several years. Apparently there are even less women in theory because they don’t feel like it relates to the real world. I applied to twelve programs and out of a list of over forty potential advisors, two are women. I find that kind of strange in some ways.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity - what does it mean to be math-y, but not science-y? I’ve always been math-y, majored in it along with a social science major, but I was never great at science, took it only through 11th grade, took “gut” distribution courses, and don’t have any particular interest in science (though certainly respect scientists). Is that unusual?</p>
<p>While it might be a little unusual, PG, I would say that it is perfectly possible to be math-y, but not science-y. It is probably an indication that the person enjoys abstraction, and has numerical insight, but does not like one or more aspects of scientific work, which might include lengthy observations, detailed recording, systematizing, hands-on operations (lots of fields of chemistry and physics), or memorizing. . . . which, frankly, strike me as kind of boring just at the moment.</p>
<p>re the multiplication tables. Gifted son did not do the flash cards that easily as a young student. His math, versus elementary school arithmetic memorizing, skills were excellent for middle/HS competitions and the Honors math major.</p>
<p>It would have been easier for me if I had others around me with the same interests and abilities when I was a kid. Still wouldn’t have liked math or physics any better despite doing well in it. In the 1990’s I had a telephone conversation with my college mentor- she said even then there were still problems for women in science (she is a PhD Physical? Chemist cum Pharmacology medical school professor).</p>
<p>I still remember one Anesthesiology rotation that happened to have a majority of women residents who all sat around talking one slow day- the lone male staff physician left the room. Later I spent plenty of time in private practice physician’s lounges and I can attest that the men’s conversations were no more scholarly than ours were. Football, cars, boats… Unfortunately most of the women were too busy with doing the family things after work to have the time for socialization. Times have changed and women are no longer thought to be nurses instead of physicians in the hospital world. The tales I could tell. We had to be tough- I wonder how things change when women with power roles become the norm in a setting. That will have to wait for the hard sciences.</p>
<p>" what does it mean to be math-y, but not science-y?" - It may just mean that you didn’t stick with science long enough for it to progress into a more math-y endeavor.</p>
<p>I wasn’t science-y mostly because my high school had terrible science. I liked high school chemistry. I took physics in college, I found some lab things surprisingly difficult - the electric circuit diagrams never looked like the pile of wires we had. The last part of the course unfortunately assumed we’d taken college chemistry and was way over my head. Now about all I can say about what I learned is that there are only two basic rules. F=MA and you can’t push on a rope.</p>
<p>So I have an EE degree from back in the dark ages when only 2% of that year’s graduates were women. My Dad did set theory with me in kindergarten (new math before there was new math), I subscribed to a monthly science kit club, and there were always as many Legos as Barbies in my house. My Aunt was a math major in the 50s when it was really,really rare, so it never occurred to my Dad that girls could not do math. It never occurred to my Mom that her girls couldn’t do whatever they wanted. I was more science-y than math-y. I like the hands on practical, and tolerated 6 semesters of calculus.</p>
<p>Neither of my DDs share my love of physics. My D1 thought it was weird that I asked her how many girls were in her B/C Calc class (more girls than boys), and it never occurred to either of them that they could not do math and science just as well as the boys. This is a big shift from my early days of always being the only girl in the room, both at school and at work. That said, neither DD has chosen a STEM degree path. Just not their interest area. But thankfully this was their choice, not their fate.</p>
<p>We didn’t intentionally push math on our daughter (or didn’t notice - DH and I are both engineers). Mostly she dragged it out of us. She was an avid reader on her own, so at bedtime she’d sometimes beg for us to give her math problems or “mixture problems”. The kindergarten teacher said she was the only kid to ever count her blocks out by 3 (other kids sometimes did it by 2)… I think she was impatient to get past 10 as fast as possible.</p>
<p>Some people like abstract math and not real world applications used for science. Very easy to separate a love of science and math- that’s why they don’t have a single term combining both. Also why there is an applied math major along with a math major.</p>
<p>I didn’t mind science that much, but have always hated math worse than anything in the world. It bored me to tears in school and I avoid it whenever possible today. And I hate when these articles come out. We forget that for every girl that might benefit from more exposure to STEM, there’s another one who’s having it shoved in her face morning noon and night when all she wants to do is teach Spanish, or be a social worker or something. Just because girls can doesn’t mean they all want to. The humanities and social sciences forever!
ETA: I have two sons. S1 is a Sports Journalism major and was delighted when he found out he only had to take three hours of math. S2 is thinking the same major for that very reason.</p>
<p>Spanish teachers and social workers would benefit from basic math skills, too. Social workers, especially, may need to understand and discuss the results of social science studies - which involve a lot of statistics. Ditto for Spanish teachers who want to keep up with research on pedagogy in their field. Facility in math is for everyone!</p>
<p>I also doubt that there’s a 1:1 ratio of girls who have too much math to girls with not enough. I’m imagining it’s probably more like for every 10 girls who need more STEM exposure/encouragement, there’s one girl who really doesn’t need advanced math and is being pushed into it a bit.</p>
<p>My D is a recent grad with a bachelors and masters in engineering. She has run into gender bias throughout her academic career. Her second grade teacher expressed shock when she was placed in an advanced math group and asked me why D wanted to join that group when she could stay in her own classroom with her friends. She self studied algebra one summer and her middle school math teacher told her that she needed “seat time” in order to truly understand the concepts. Her high school guidance counselor told her that she had taken enough math to graduate rather than steering her toward very advanced HS math. She actually said"You don’t want to be an engineer, do you?" In her grad classes, many of the students are international and do not look up from their laptops before or after class to say hello. Several of her professors have a touch of Aspergers and do not call their students by name, even in a small graduate level course. The presentation skills of her fellow engineering students are lacking and she is often selected to do most group presentations. She chose STEM as she enjoyed math and is a brilliant problem solver. Her most recent job interviewer commented that her CV is outstanding, repeated 3 times, but did not offer her the job. It is still a lonely journey with a lot of obstacles.</p>
<p>Juillet, I agree, there is a certain amount of math everyone should know, but I think that amount stops at algebra, which is required to graduate from high school. I don’t think the Spanish teacher or social worker really has any need or use for calculus or trig which generally come next. </p>
<p>It’s hard for me (and should be for anyone who hasn’t studied this) what percentage of girls could benefit from more math being encouraged and what percentage is being deterred from school because of all the math being shoved at them. It seems to me though that as long as society isn’t specifically distracting girls from math that it shouldn’t really be a huge problem. It doesn’t seem to be gravely terrible that girls more commonly want to be social workers or teachers and boys engineers or economists or whatever.</p>
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<p>Hope they don’t have to write about “sabermetric” analysis of sports teams and the like.</p>
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<p>However, a basic understanding of probability and statistics should be useful for most people.</p>