Posted on 03/06/2008 4:37:35 PM PST by neverdem
Women earn most of America’s Ph.D.’s but lag in the physical sciences. Beware of plans to fix the ‘problem.’
Math 55 is advertised in the Harvard catalog as “probably the most difficult undergraduate math class in the country.” It is legendary among high school math prodigies, who hear terrifying stories about it in their computer camps and at the Math Olympiads. Some go to Harvard just to have the opportunity to enroll in it. Its formal title is “Honors Advanced Calculus and Linear Algebra,” but it is also known as “math boot camp” and “a cult.” The two-semester freshman course meets for three hours a week, but, as the catalog says, homework for the class takes between 24 and 60 hours a week.
Math 55 does not look like America. Each year as many as 50 students sign up, but at least half drop out within a few weeks. As one former student told The Crimson newspaper in 2006, “We had 51 students the first day, 31 students the second day, 24 for the next four days, 23 for two more weeks, and then 21 for the rest of the first semester.” Said another student, “I guess you can say it’s an episode of ‘Survivor’ with people voting themselves off.” The final class roster, according to The Crimson: “45 percent Jewish, 18 percent Asian, 100 percent male.”
Why do women avoid classes like Math 55? Why, in fact, are there so few women in the high echelons of academic math and in the physical sciences?
Women now earn 57 percent of bachelors degrees and 59 percent of masters degrees. According to the Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2006 was the fifth year in a row in which the majority of research Ph.D.’s awarded to U.S. citizens went to women. Women earn...
(Excerpt) Read more at american.com ...
Why no women? Easy, men are far better at math than women just as women are better with verbal skills than men. The sameness lies propagated by deceptive, sneaking liberals wallowing in political correctness are taken as truth by those in denial.
I wonder how the breakdown determined 45% were Jewish?? Asians are obvious but not Jews. Why no information on the remainder?
Aptitude.
As a woman and an educator, I agree. Women are much better spellers and writers as whole, naturally. Men are better at math and science. There are always exceptions, of course.
Remember how Laurence Summers, president of Harvard, was lampooned about speculating about women in the sciences. Certain subjects are not to be discussed unless one can come to politically correct conclusions. If the conclusion or evidence is not politically correct, then it must be wrong somehow.
Back to Math 55 for a moment. Baron-Cohen, along with many other scholars who write about cognitive sex differences, would not be surprised to learn that students who show up in 55 are overwhelmingly male. The Harvard registrar’s office reports that a total of 17 women have completed the course since 1990. Still, the equity activists could be right that the few women who defy the stereotype and take such a course have to overcome a “chilly environment.” I located two female survivors—Sherry Gong, currently enrolled, and Kelley Harris, who completed Math 55 with an A last year. “Did you encounter a hostile environment in that class?” asked Miss Harris. She laughed. “I loved my classmates!” When she once thought of dropping out, it was her male friends in the course who persuaded her to stay. Sherry Gong was taken aback when inquired whether she felt that women in math were unwelcome or marginalized. It was as if had asked whether women had the vote. “It is 2007!” she reminded me. Sergei Bernstein, a young man now enrolled, told me, “We would like to have more girls.”
Wanna bet those male students all have coke bottle glasses and pocket protectors?
PhD’s in cooking, cleaning, getting beering, etc. Just kidding!
Your observations are correct.
Also, I found that boys understood the functions of the eight parts of speech better when they were allowed to diagram sentences.
This is just an attempt to cram one's preconceived ideas of an outcome down society's throat - rather than accepting nature and appreciating the positive aspects of the differences.
Almost any guy will tell you the same thing...
Duck and run!
I too am in education. Higher education has become the seat and propagator of intolerance and deception. Sadly and shamefully, seeking the truth is no longer the goal of higher education.
Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami and secretary of health and human services in the Clinton administration . . . warned that strong measures would be needed to improve the “hostile climate” women face in the academy. This “crisis,” as she called it, “clearly calls for a transformation of academic institutions . . . our nation’s future depends on it.”
************
Cornell . . . just received a $3.3 million grant from the NSF to build a “critical mass” of women in all the STEM disciplines—ASAP.
the answer leaves me hanging.
At the level of math or science PhD’s, the differences can be explained away by a tiny stretching of the Normal curve for males, compared to that for females. A tiny fraction more males than females have very high math abilities — comparable to the larger proportion of males who have very low abilities. (Or, so the hypothesis goes.)
At the level of ordinary undergraduate math and science, men and women are, for all practicle purposes, equally able. IMHO, the differences are probably due to social factors. Math and science is a tough grind, and the course work tends to be largely a solitary effort. Hence the stereotypical math geek. Women tend to gravitate toward courses that allow more social interaction. Also, there is still some legacy of the “Mrs.” degree — where women enrolled in “finishing school” courses like art appreciation, rather than grind courses like physics.
Women, who want to study math or science — and who are prepared for the grind — should not hesitate to do so. They're as capable as almost all men in that regard.
There is still some question as to whether women are as capable at the advanced PhD level of science or math. Larry Summers, quondam President of Harvard, got pilloried for simply suggesting that some more research might be required on this subject — so, don't hold your breath waiting for the actual research to be done and published. Regardless — almost all of us men are not capable of such advanced math or science work either.
I can’t remember - did Bill Gates take this course?
That was a good point about the %. I never understand why some people get all up in arms that men might actually be better at something than women and vice versa.
Men are better at a lot of things and I am very grateful for that, in fact. There is way too much man-bashing these days and especially white man bashing.
Getting a PhD is only the beginning. Something other than a science would be most practical. Do whatever you can become total master of and then the world will be yours.
This results in more inept & stupid men than women, but also more brilliant and gifted men than women. Something in the way the two sexes are hardwired.
Made sense to me, anyway.
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