Women and Mathematics
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Women and Mathematics
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Re: Women and Mathematics
#2This is crap.
5 paragraphs of how mathematics has higher standards of rigour. Completed by a muddled argument supported only by a quote and apocryphal reports.
Also, "snow" falling over text makes it hard to read, as would be obvious.
Re: Women and Mathematics
#3Women are socially (and, perhaps, otherwise) conditioned to avoid those society perceives as loser-types.
Unfortunately, mathematicians still fit this mold, as much as I wish it weren't so.
This alone largely explains the absence of women in math, much as it explains the absence of women in my field, IT.
Re: Women and Mathematics
#4Women are socially (and, perhaps, otherwise) conditioned to avoid those society perceives as loser-types. Unfortunately, mathematicians still fit this mold, as much as I wish it weren't so. This alone largely explains the absence of women in math, much as it explains the absence of women in my field, IT.
Having been a woman for most of my life (and a girl for the rest of it), I can assure you that women don't avoid fields applying mathematics just because they don't want to hang out with loser-types. In fact, I find most women try to pursue things they enjoy, more so than avoid things they may hate (like losers, or long division, per se).
If there's a lack of women in IT, it's probably because they don't enjoy it, or aren't encouraged to pursue it. Most women don't make professional decisions hoping to increase their chances of havin' a cutie in the next cubicle.
Re: Women and Mathematics
#5Women are socially (and, perhaps, otherwise) conditioned to avoid those society perceives as loser-types. Unfortunately, mathematicians still fit this mold, as much as I wish it weren't so. This alone largely explains the absence of women in math, much as it explains the absence of women in my field, IT.
Having been a woman for most of my life (and a girl for the rest of it), I can assure you that women don't avoid fields applying mathematics just because they don't want to hang out with loser-types. In fact, I find most women try to pursue things they enjoy, more so than avoid things they may hate (like losers, or long division, per se). If there's a lack of women in IT, it's probably because they don't enjoy it, or…
That is true of most adults (of both sexes) however most people (here in the UK at least) choose the general direction of their careers at the age of 14, which is when you choose your GCSEs. You get to tweak it again at 16 when you choose your A-levels (from a subset of your GCSEs) and again at 18 when you choose your first degree, but the decisions made at 14 are so far upstream at this point that you only have so much maneuverability left.
Anyway, at 14, I remember that my double-science class was almost entirely male, perhaps 5/25 girls (about 100 people in my year in total). Drama and English had the opposite ratio. Only those 5 girls would even have had the option to take a science or engineering degree, 10% of the females in the year. Now we all know you don't need one of those to work in IT, but still, if you want girls in the field, that's where you've got to catch them.
Re: Women and Mathematics
#648% of the class of '06 at MIT were female (up from like 2% back in the day) and most of them were serious hackers. Yet today almost all of the girls who didn’t go to grad school are working for either a large corporation or an investment bank.
With the whole goddamn responsibility of keeping humanity alive on top of them undoubtedly there’s a genetic disposition for women to be more risk averse. Math and programming are relatively precarious. That though probably is easily overcome, since women have clearly been extremely competent in pretty much every other field now for decades.
So the problem has to lie in social conditioning. Cultural expectation and etiquette has always been the most powerful destroyer of potential in both men and women. Tradition is THE enemy.
(Heard this joke? Why do baby boys wear blue and baby girls wear pink? Because they don’t have a fucking choice.)
Re: Women and Mathematics
#7Women are socially (and, perhaps, otherwise) conditioned to avoid those society perceives as loser-types. Unfortunately, mathematicians still fit this mold, as much as I wish it weren't so. This alone largely explains the absence of women in math, much as it explains the absence of women in my field, IT.
Having been a woman for most of my life (and a girl for the rest of it), I can assure you that women don't avoid fields applying mathematics just because they don't want to hang out with loser-types. In fact, I find most women try to pursue things they enjoy, more so than avoid things they may hate (like losers, or long division, per se). If there's a lack of women in IT, it's probably because they don't enjoy it, or…
"Most women don't make professional decisions hoping to increase their chances of havin' a cutie in the next cubicle."
Not consciously, anyway. And it doesn't have anything to do with "havin' a cutie," it's more to avoid going into fields with a social stigma associated with them and their typical practitioners.
This social stigma is decreasing (even in IT -- "geek" is no longer an insult), but nevertheless it is still there.
For whatever reason, women seem to be more influenced by social cues -- or perhaps just influenced differently than men. It's not wrong -- it just is. Therefore, my guess is that a lot of the gender disparity is still extant for social stigma reasons and the concomitant avoidance of that stigma.
Re: Women and Mathematics
#8Is it raining pixels on that site? I see white pixels moving from top to bottom of the site...
Re: Women and Mathematics
#948% of the class of '06 at MIT were female (up from like 2% back in the day) and most of them were serious hackers. Yet today almost all of the girls who didn’t go to grad school are working for either a large corporation or an investment bank. With the whole goddamn responsibility of keeping humanity alive on top of them undoubtedly there’s a genetic disposition for women to be more risk averse. Math and programming…
Hi, you appear to be brainwashed by the PC establishment. Try this experiment: attempt to think for yourself for a few months. (Try out the craziest thoughts! If they're 'scandalous' you don't have to run them by other people, just evaluate them for yourself.)
Also, think critically about the people who promote these views. Most of them aren't very smart (in the sense that a tenured professor with awards can still be an idiot), or have a vested interest in promoting these views (typically racial).
Here's the first Google hit I could find disproving your joke. Someone else can find a blog post where a lesbian buys her daughter a firetruck and the girl begins to nurse the firetruck.
The world evolves in a certain way for a reason. Do you think this is the first era in which people thought that everyone might be equal? This is the first era in which we've had the luxury to attempt the experiment. The results are in: people aren't equal. Pack it up and go home. We're all tired of hearing this drivel.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/boys-like-blue-gir...
Re: Women and Mathematics
#1048% of the class of '06 at MIT were female (up from like 2% back in the day) and most of them were serious hackers. Yet today almost all of the girls who didn’t go to grad school are working for either a large corporation or an investment bank. With the whole goddamn responsibility of keeping humanity alive on top of them undoubtedly there’s a genetic disposition for women to be more risk averse. Math and programming…
> undoubtedly there’s a genetic disposition for women to be more risk averse
There are some reasons to think that. But they are not beyond doubt. There are smart, educated people who disagree, and even if there weren't, one of the important things about science is keeping the ideas open to doubt.