Math is Hard, Barbie Said

To Chrislux, '
You are assuming IQ is innate, but what if it is not, as much earlier research has indicated? than the bell curve theory you describes only proves that boys and girls are different, not that the differences are innate.
Until we can see the bell curve happened in the infant stage( or at the neuroscience level), it does not provide any insights on how male and female are BY NATURE different. Yes, it is great that scientists are trying to find out if there is any biological evidence to explain the bell curve, however, I don't think there is no conclusion yet, especially in regard to the test scores. If there is, I would love to learn about it.Thanks!

To alphadominance:
If testosterone level is a good indicator for math skill, than should we expect to see men with higher testosterone are better in math? And Asians who are believed to better in math have higher testosterone? :) When 2 things are co-related, it does not mean 1 thing can explain the other. totother. R

"alphadominance"?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Clearly expectation has a good deal to do with performance across gender. There is a biological basis for superior abilities in math and science even intra-gender. According to the book "Social Structure & Testosterone" the levels of testosterone in a person's system are correlated with mathematical ability. They've found that women who excel in these fields themselves have higher testosterone levels as compared with their math averse peers. This could explain some of the historical bias when it comes to this question.
www.alphadominance.com

Comment: I expand a bit on my previous comment. In the article there is a lot of trying to explain the paucity of girls or women with exceptional mathematical talent by sociological arguments. But one of the most important cause for the lack of females at higher levels in mathematics is probably very distinct and may not be well received everywhere. Most people would agree that to be a brilliant mathematician your IQ must be ,not 1 or 2 standard deviation above the mean, but rather 3 or 4 times or more above the mean of 100. Now studies have consistently found that the standard deviation of males IQ is significantly larger than that of females IQ. Given the approximately normal distribution of IQ this helps to explain why there are so many males and so few females with exceptional mathematical aptitudes.
And the explanation above is also valid for the lack of female representation in disciplines such as advanced theoretical physics, advanced engineering research or abstract intelligence games such as chess or checkers. For example in chess you find only one female in the top 100 worldwide FIDE rankings and none in the first ten. Now the higher standard deviation of males in most mental test scores has most probably a biological background, as evolutionary biologists and evolutionary psychologists are starting to find out.

In the article there is a lot of trying to explain the paucity of girls or women in exceptional mathematical talent by sociological arguments. But one of the most important cause for the lack of females at higher levels in mathematics is probably very distinct and may not be well received everywhere. Most people would agree that to be a brilliant mathematician your IQ must be ,not 1 or 2 standard deviation above the mean, but rather 3 or 4 times or more above the mean of 100. Now studies have consistently found that the standard deviation of males IQ is significantly larger than that of females IQ. Given the approximately normal distribution of IQ this helps to explain why there are so many males and so few females with exceptional mathematical aptitudes

In homeschooled kids, the major discriminators of performance (judged by standardized tests) in various subjects, sex, parental income, parental education, nationality, etc. all wash out. All of these differences are incorporated by the school systems. The kids all start out roughly the same. The schools reconstruct the status quo.

This week it is Sharon Begley's turn to wax sexist blather. Can we agree that girls are "hard-wired" to produce children? And can we agree that U.S. schools are busy teaching "abstinence" and "sex-ed" (see Laura Beil's article) rather than more mathematics? Therein lies the reasons for the Bulgarians and the Germans to out-teach the Americans in mat: Their cultures depend on more traditional family structures which enable their schools to worry less about teen pregnancy and more about giving teen girls the tools to excel. Begley points out that girls are more "sensitve to status" than boys, which is also sexist.

If I ever again hear the word "hard-wired" used to describe anything other than an electrical system???the human brain, for instance???I'm going to scream"

- you are going to scream because women are HARD-WIRED to scream when confronted with upleasant facts. Funny most of the people who throw hiss are women- this is hard-wired, too.

I'm guy who's not as doctrinairely "feminist" as he once was, but who will never be an idiot. There are current differences between boys and girls, but it's far too early to call many of them definitely biological. Almost all of them, for now, are environmental. I view women and men as having, in a way, difference cultures.

And yes, I hate the phrase "hard-wired" too; what a obvious cliche, taken from non-applicable situations! I would argue regarding math and science that men's social status is much more dependent on making money, so they need to gravitate toward subjects like math for a secure future. As you wrote, the nerd stereotype is destructive, so women can't afford it. I don't think this set of incentives will change anytime soon, since they are so deeply rooted in our culture.

I find it fascinating how other cultures are not as anti-intellectual as ours. This is true, to some extent, of Eastern Europe.

You write that girls "are more sensitive to social status than boys." Now, you wouldn't be saying THAT'S hard-wired, would you?

If it is indeed the social stigma that keeps girls out of the sciences,math in particular, I fully expect the ratio of boys/girls to become even closer to 1 in the future.

As I look around I see that being a "geek" or "math nerd" is becoming more and more socially acceptable. I see movies like "21" have MIT math geniuses as the protagonist, I see shirts at snorg.com making amusing jokes about Pie's irrationality or I's "grasp of reality".