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The whole Larry Summers brouhaha over women and science that erupted at Harvard earlier this year has long since died down, but it reminded me of my own follies with math, the pinnacle of which I reached at the end of my junior year in high school when I told Mrs. Griffin that I would not enroll in a pre-calc class next year because I would be a lawyer, and lawyers don’t need math. Fast forward six years: I dropped out of law school after only two days, and am sitting in a graduate economics class. Ooops.
This unfortunate memory returned to me via The Wonderful World of Des. Des’s hilarious struggle as she prepares for the GRE, and her sordid (yet mostly successful) history with math makes for highly entertaining reading:
I don't like math. It upsets me. I did math fine when I was in school and I needed to do math. I got A++++s in algebra and geometry. I never took trigonometry. But until then, math and I got along fine. We were acquaintances that didn't make an effort to see each other, but if we were at a party together it was not so bad…
Higher math and I don't get along like the lower maths and I do. I tried 3 different times to take calculus… I was somehow enrolled in a class called Advanced Calculus for Engineers. I am not an engineer. I didn't have one of those fancy engineering calculators that cost $200 (which actually worked out for me because the teacher hated them and they weren't allowed in class). I studied my goldfarn butt off for that class, seriously like 4 hours a day. Every day. And I was still not what you would call "doing well." After I took the final, I emailed my teacher and basically said, "look - we both know I don't belong here. I've worked really hard, but all I need is a C to pass. If I get a C, you will never hear from me again because I will not be in any class involving the words advanced calculus or engineers." Maybe it was all the studying, maybe it was the last-minute begging, but I did get a C in the class. True to my word, I made extra sure that next semster was something like Calculus for Beginners.
Aha! If Des is struggling with the math section of the GRE, Adventures in Ethics and Science presents an interesting potential reason. Dr. Stemwedel blogged back in late October about a study showing that:
“The women told prior experience determined their math ability got twice as many answers right on the exam as women told their genetics were to blame. ...
The women who were simply reminded of their gender also performed worse than those told their was no difference in gender abilities in math.â€
Let's repeat that: reminding the test subject that she's a woman impairs her performance on the math section.
The article calls this phenomenon "stereotype threat", which seems to amount to living up to social expectations of the group of which you are a member. And this, it seems to me, is one more reason to be particularly careful about research that purports to demonstrate that some group of humans really does display some behavior (less aptitude for math, lower average IQ, what have you) that pretty much fits what people generally believed about that group prior to the research.
So basically giving girls a pretty Barbie who tells them every time you push the button in her plastic back that “Math is hard,†you are very likely setting her up to fail. Especially if she plays with this doll right before the GRE. Fortunately, I believe that this charming socializing tool has been unavailable for several years. (If you come across one, smash it. Please.)
There are plenty of women who excel at math. The Agnes Scott College in Georgia has an the biographies of over 200 women mathematicians online. Many had to overcome ridiculous hurdles to be taken seriously. Others, like NerdMom at NerdFamily have never felt the frustration of discrimination
:Now remember that I am a female math and science nerd (and found my loving husband that way... I do know that most math and science departments want women (and not just as eye candy;). Frankly, the more girls they have as students the more $$$ and having female faculty means
