Ayeni 1.

Oluwadunni Ayeni

Ms. Szybisty

Pre-English

July 30 2017

What Gender Has Got to Do with Mathematics.

Few years back, I was at a conference with a board of officials and some of my other

classmates. Just before the conference ended, the director, Mr. Agboade, asked if any girl who

was confident in her math ability would volunteer to represent our district at a competition. He

explicitly stated that he wanted a female student to represent us for this very prestigious

competition. The officials all looked confused because usually, they picked the right students

they knew were geniuses at math, and their first choices were always males. An official

suddenly stood up and told the director that he was right in encouraging girls to go for the

competition, but he felt the competition was better suited for a boy, because he has the

capacity and ability to successfully win the competition. He also stated that the competition

was prestigious, so it was better not to risk our chances of winning. At first this idea did not hit

me, but when I got home that evening, my sisters were watching a competition show and I

joined them. It was a STEM competition involving six contesters, but then I noticed something

significant: five of these contesters were boys, and the other person was the only girl. Just then

did what the official said earlier hit me, does gender really affect ones mathematical ability?

Prior to this experience, I was not cognizant of the assumption of gender role in

mathematical ability, but upon researching, I learned this belief dates far back to the 1950s, a

period of conformity when there was a clear-cut distinction between gender role, according to
 Ayeni 2.

societys expectations. Women were believed to be weaker vessels and therefore not suited for

tedious jobs, and jobs that require high intellect. It was not until few years later women started

gaining more freedom in terms of getting jobs associated with men. Though before this time,

few women have been in these fields, but they were not really recognized. Going on to this

present day, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics research suggests that at both

elementary and secondary levels, boys and girls score similarly on tests, with the girls getting a

relatively good score. They however note that gender differences in attitudes towards math

makes boys more likely than girls to pursue math-intensive fields. This may however not be the

case as the research according American Psychological Association notes that girls from

countries where gender equity is prevalent are likely to perform better than their male

counterparts. These sources give concrete evidences to support their arguments, but one thing

that is known is that this subject matter has gained the interest of people in recent times,

mainly because of the prevalence of science and technology

The field of STEM cannot be underestimated as it encompasses all of our daily lives. Much of

the advancements in the world today; things becoming easier to use, research and findings, and

future predictabilities, is all thanks to the thriving world of STEM. Mathematics has been the

basis of all STEM fields, of a fact, all fields of life has ties with math, so for one to excel in any

field of STEM, one must be mathematically sound, which is why its importance cannot be

dismissed. This increasing prevalence of science and technology has led to an enormous

interest in STEM fields, and as a set group of people desire to delve into these fields, the role of

gender in the likelihood to enter a field of STEM has garnered more attention in recent years.

Leaders in the field of technology have been exploring ways to get more people interested, so
 Ayeni 3.

they have been researching if certain attributes of a group of people can impede their abilities

to be interested and successful in math, and ultimately STEM. This have also been investigating

if factors like gender affects ones mathematical ability. Scholars like Ellis Jessica of the

Department of Mathematics at Colorado State University, Rattan Aneeta of Stanford University,

and Dickson Andy the Department of Economics at University of Sheffield, also give their

takes on the relationship between gender and math.

Jessica Ellis, along with her colleagues Bailey K Fosdick, and Chris Rasmuseen agree that gender

may be a liable reason for mathematical ability. They discuss in their article, Women are 1.5

Times More likely to Leave Stem Pipeline after Calculus Compared to Men: Lack of Confidence a

Potential Culprit, their findings on the possible reason women may not be as vast as their male

counterpart in math using calculus 1 as a case study, since calculus is a major determinant for

continuation in a STEM field. In this article, they note that at elementary levels, boys and girls

give similar interest to STEM, but by twelfth-grade, 59% of women show interest as opposed to

70% of men. The number drops even further as 17% women show interest in college, compared

to 32% of men. Women overall represent 25% of the whole STEM workforce. (para 1). Jessica,

with her colleagues argue that the reason gender affects mathematical ability is because of lack

of persistence and confidence which many women possess. As confidence plays a significant

role in ones success in STEM, women and men have different levels of confidence (para 8) with

mens confidence levels being higher, and women on the other hand start at a low confidence

rate.

Rattan Aneeta however feels a different way. She, with her colleagues Good Catherine, and
 Ayeni 2.

Dweck Carol, in their article titled, Why Do Women Opt Out, Sense of Belonging and Womens

Representation in Mathematics, assert that the stereotype that women have less math

ability than men has encouraged women to study math and ultimately pursued a career in

STEM successfully. They observe that a key factor that drives students intent to pursue a math

related major is their personal sense that they belong in math (para 1). In this article, they note

that even high achieving female math students may opt out because of lack of sense of

belonging, rather than mathematical ability, as shown in their research. They state that women

have the potential to succeed in a field of math like men, and when they are protected from

that negative stereotype that men are better, they maintain a high sense of belonging in math

and an interest to pursue math in the future. Dickson Andy had a narrow approach to this

subject matter as he observes gender gap in mathematics in Africa. He, along with his

colleagues Mcintosh Steven and Valente Christine, suggest that gender gap is influenced by the

regions which the students live, and that region serves as a predictive measure to the role of

gender in mathematical ability. They observe that men in Africa have higher mathematical

ability than women because men have: larger interest in objects verses people; where objects

refer to handy and machine materials that are associated with STEM classes, spatial and

numerical abilities men have which lead to a greater aptitude for math, and because men have

higher dispersion in quantitative and spatial abilities (para 2). They state, according to their

study, that gender gap correlates more with regional share of women with no form of

education, which overall reduces the mathematical ability of women in that region.

So does gender have anything to do with mathematics? One may argue that womens

underrepresentation in STEM is as a result of certain traits women have that undermine their
 Ayeni 3.

performances. It can also be argued that women do not necessarily possess any trait that

makes them less likely to succeed in math. However, whether or not gender has got anything to

do with mathematics has not be determined, therefore can be disputed.

Bibliography
1. Ellis Jessica, Fosdick Bailey, Rasmuseen Chris. Women 1.5 Times More Likely to Leave

STEM Pipeline after Calculus Compared to Men: Lack of Mathematical Confidence a Potential

Culprit PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 7, 2016, pg. 1-14.

2. Rattan Aneeta, Good Catherine, Dweck Carol. Why do Women opt out? Sense of

Belonging and Womens Representation in Mathematics Journal of Personality and

Social Psychology, vol. 102, no. 4, 2012, pg. 700-717.

3. Dickerson Andy, Mcintosh Steven, Valente Christine. Do the Maths: An analysis of the

gender gap in mathematics in Africa Economics of Education Review, vol.46, 2015, pg. 1-22.

4. Niederle Muriel, Vesterlund Lise. Explaining the Gender Gap in Math Test Scores: The

Role of Competition Journal of Economic Perspective, vol. 24, no.2, 2010, pg. 129-144.

5. Else-Quest Nicole, Shibley Hyde Janet, Linn Marcia. Cross-National Patterns of Gender

Differences in Mathematics: A meta-analysis Psychological Bulletin, vol. 136, no. 1.

1449 words.
Ayeni 2.