Biases said to hinder women in math, sciences |
A report on the underrepresentation of women in science and math by the American Association of University Women, to be released today, found that although women have made gains, stereotypes and cultural biases still impede their success
The report, "Why So Few?" supported by the National Science Foundation, examined decades of research to gather recommendations for drawing more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called STEM fields.
"We scanned the literature for research with immediate applicability," said Catherine Hill, the university women's research director and lead author of the report. "We found a lot of small things can make a difference, like a course in spatial skills for women going into engineering, or teaching children that math ability is not fixed, but grows with effort."
The report treads lightly on the hot-button question of whether innate differences between the sexes account for the paucity of women at the highest levels of science and math.
Five years ago, Lawrence Summers, then the president of Harvard, sparked a firestorm when he suggested that "there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude" reinforced by "lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination."
The association's report acknowledges differences in male and female brains. But, Hill said, "none of the research convincingly links those differences to specific skills, so we don't know what they mean in terms of mathematical abilities."
At the top level of math abilities, where boys are overrepresented, the report found that the gender gap is rapidly shrinking. Among mathematically precocious youth - sixth and
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/22/MNPN1CJD07.DTL#ixzz0iy5UZNnk