In my Math and Science classes, I see a lot more girls than boys. Social progress? Take that as you will.

As a psych. guy, I see a combination of genetic variables combined with societal expectations. In general, women tend to skew towards right-brained thinking- less analytical. Combined with archaic and often improper societal expectations, it will in turn skew the amount of women who turn towards mathematical careers.

This creates a horrible headache for women like my wife. She is far more analytical, left-brain oriented than the rest of her gender AT LARGE. I emphasize that because people tend to look for anomalies and ignore generalizations that are correct. It's not politically incorrect to say women *in general* are more right-brain oriented, maternal and empathetic.

Anyway, back to my point. My wife has had to struggle working in a male dominated workforce (civil engineering). By struggle, I mean being faced with improper societal expectations from men, lower wage scale based on erroneous thought processes that she is less intelligent and thus less skilled and subsequently debates whether the fiscal reward is enough to justify it all. Often, she comes home and wants to crawl into a hole, but she's very headstrong and resilient.

I can certainly see why, based on my personal observations, women would shy away from math, logic, left-brain based careers when being forced to weigh these options. I truly feel sorry for women.

There are literally piles of studies from the early 50's to the present which show that women (girls at that age) are simply not encouraged to become mathematicians, physicists, or chemists or any other flavor of scientist. The ironic single exception would be that women are a majority of teachers in sub-college education. There is a rich history of women being kept from science (or any other work of merit). Women have been kept from medicine and the other "hard" sciences.

That is a loooong history to overcome, and lukewarm non-encouragement at the scholastic level, and at home isn't changing that anytime soon. Lets face it, women are generally treated poorly compared to men, worldwide. If there is a genetic, or other essential difference, there is so much sociological baggage, past and current, that it would be impossible to find it at this point. I think we can safely assume that we're losing out by treating half our population like chattel.

I'm a man and I hate math. See! Everything balances out.

@Frame Dragger: *More* than half, which makes it all the more ridiculous.

@mprezzy: Good point... what is it now, 52%? Now we have this lovely (HARDCORE sarcasm) report of a 15 year old girl gang-raped by FIVE guys at a homecoming party, IN parking lot of the school WHILE the party continued AND 15 people watched. For 2.5 hours. Lets say the time is wrong... I hope... that's still a horrible commentary on how some guys are wired/raised. This... display of people showing a side that no one ever seems to see coming OR aknowledge... is part of why I have such disdain for some people instead of beginning from a point of respect. Ahhh... 5 guys... 5 in the same school who are that twisted. We're all so s*****d as a species...

Why do we need "match.com"

because women are convinced by some subliminal messages or hints from magazines, their fathers, mothers, or society in general that certain occupations are off limits to them. Then, the men in those occupations discover they are lonely and have no women to talk to. They then turn to the internet.

sigh, I hope that doesn't happen to me. I hear that artists and graphics designers are a pretty mixed bag when it comes to genders though.

peace,
-nick

Didn't the Simpsons tackle this one? All the guys in my Math Enriched class are barely passing (myself included), and the best kid in the class is a girl (she's getting 107% or something, too).

That was an interesting article.

Way back in the dark ages when I was applying to colleges, I was interested in a program that required an aptitude test. The test giver tried to talk me out of taking the test because "Girls never do well on this test." Well, I not only did well but I outscored all the guys taking the test. The test giver’s only comment was that "You must have a male brain."

I made it into the program and had to fight stereotypes and prove that I deserved to be there almost every day.

What about equal rights for disenters?!

What if one is pro quality, but anti feminism? Don't hurt me mods, I am merely posing a question!

I think male and female brains are generally stronger in certain areas than others. Like from what I heard (maybe this has changed) girls have higher GPAs on average and guys have higher IQs. But those numbers are based off such a large number that it hardly means anything when referring to specific people, so who cares?

Anyway, all I think is that no one should be held to a higher or lower standard than anyone else. Everyone starts with the same opportunity and we see for ourselves who pushes themselves the hardest and gets the farthest in life. Part of the reason for girls doing well in school and guys getting higher wages might be either that guys deal with street smarts better, CEOs being sexist (most likely), or it might be that guys don't have to try because society will like them better. But then again, there are scholarships for being a white female. There are scholarships for being black. There aren't scholarships for being a white male.

If no one is held to any different standard, I would guess that men and women would do pretty similarly in any field, not just Physics. I'm into artistic stuff anyway, so I don't care who's better at math and stuff though.

I have definitely seen that in the engineering world too. Not too many women in that field either.

@nicktarist, I hadn't thought about that aspect of this social mechanism. Many of my friends in science and engineering are lonely and use sites like match.com. I think there was once a time when women chased engineers because engineers would make good money. As our economy has advanced, while an engineer still makes good money, marriage is more and more about love and less about love following security. Ironically, it's the least sexist guys I know that are using sites like match.com. Evidently, the old system still works for those who embrace it fully.