Women and Mathematics.ppt

Women and Mathematics Jean E. Taylor ΦΒΚ Visiting Scholar Courant Institute of Math Sciences, NYU /~taylor Pop quiz (now, 20 40 yrs ago) 1. a. What percentage of bachelor’s degrees in math is now awarded to women (in U.S.)? b. Same for Ph.D. degrees? 2. In studies of “math talented youth” (e.g. at age 13, scoring over 700 on math SAT), what is the ratio of boys to girls? 3. What kinds of cognitive differences have been found by scientific studies? In particular, how different are spatial abilities? 4. What percentage of tenured positions at doctoral-degree-granting math departments (in American universities) is held by women? 4 years of math in high school? 1998: sex differences in high school math participation (including calculus) had disappeared. (Still differences in “optional” courses like statistics, in 1990.) 1960: 33% of boys, 9% of girls Sells 1973 study of random sample of freshmen entering UC Berkeley: 57% of males, 8% of females. (Lots of publicity!) But 1972 large national study : 39% of males, 22% of females. (Little publicity!) Percentage of bachelor’s degrees in math now going to women? Answer: About 50%. Earlier data: 1949-50: 24% of all BA degrees to women, 23% of BA degrees in math to women. 1976-77: 46% of BA degrees to women, 42% in math to women. Grades of women in similar math courses are at least as good as men’s. Big difference is in physics and engineering; often lumped with math. More on that later… Ph.D.’s in math to women? Now: about 30% 1968 (e.g.,by my count, from published names) : 6%. “Math-talented youth” Benbow and Stanley (1980, 1983) (Johns Hopkins data): male:female ratio among 13-year-olds scoring over 700 on math SAT was 13:1. Huge publicity! Subsequent Johns Hopkins data, Duke data have showed decreasing ratios; by late 1990’s, down to under 3:1 (2.8:1) (I don’t know of any more recent data). No sign that not still falling. Furthermore B-S Methods did not ensure representative sampling; other i