Late last year, a study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which tried to pin down origins for the gender gap in mathematics education.  As I’ve discussed before, the gender gap in math education is shrinking, and has been shown to be less about biology and more about culture – in cultures where gender equality is weaker, the gender gap is stronger.  Nevertheless, even in American culture, the gender gap still persists, and this study by Sian Beilock and others has tried to figure out how, if the gender gap is culturally based, it comes about in young students.  The original study can be found here, while a discussion of the study that was featured in the news can be found here.

Professor Beilock and her colleagues tried to correlate young students’ math anxiety with the math anxiety of their teachers.  In particular, they looked at 1st and 2nd grade students, of whom a vast majority (over 90%) have teachers who are female.  The study assessed the math anxiety of the teachers and measured the math achievement of the students at the beginning and end of the year.  Here are the results, taken from the introduction to the paper:

There was no relation between a teacher’s math anxiety and her students’ math achievement at the beginning of the school year. By the school year’s end, however, the more anxious teachers were about math, the more likely girls (but not boys) were to endorse the commonly held stereotype that “boys are good at math, and girls are good at reading” and the lower these girls’ math achievement. Indeed, by the end of the school year, girls who endorsed this stereotype had significantly worse math achievement than girls who did not and than boys overall.

These findings make intuitive sense, and lend further support for the need to better our mathematics education at all levels, or at the very least require primary educators to study mathematics more seriously.  Teaching mathematics with confidence is not something that comes automatically, even for those who may have been good at math in their early years.

It’s interesting that boys weren’t more likely to endorse the view that boys are good at math and girls are good at reading if their teacher had math anxiety.  I’d be curious to see what the case is in a classroom led by a male teacher, both with and without math anxiety.  Given the dearth of male primary educators, however, this type of data may be harder to acquire.  In any event, the lesson here is clear: if you want your daughter to not fear math, it wouldn’t hurt to demand that her teachers not fear it either.  Or at the very least, demand that any math fear be exhibited only by male teachers.  That may be a cheaper solution.

I’d also be interested in knowing whether this trend can be reversed by a suitably competent teacher.  If a group of 2nd grade girls is taught math by a woman who is unqualified, but in 6th grade is taught by a woman who is exceptional, can this help undo the damage that the 2nd grade teacher has done?  I would hope so.

It's too bad Prezbo doesn't have lady parts.

This type of data is more powerful than looking at SAT scores, for instance, because exams administered in a mathematics competition are notoriously difficult. There are thousands of students who will score an 800 on the math section of the SAT, and so this test offers no way to distinguish between them. Looking at this other data, however, allows us to gain a much deeper insight into the abilities of students in the U.S. with an aptitude for mathematics.

The data suggests a couple of things. First, contrary to the Gender Gap theory I have discussed before, there are many women who perform extremely well on these exams. While the data can’t support or refute the Gender Gap theory conclusively, it does show that indeed there do exist women who are good at math.

The second conclusion, which is somewhat broader, is that a majority of students in the US who excel in these exams are either foreign (for example, the Putnam exam can be taken by any undergraduate in the US or Canada, not just citizens), or are children of immigrant parents.

The combination of these two points is highlighted in the breakdown by country of the women who compete in these types of competitions. The article informs us that, regarding the makeup of the teams sent to the International Mathematics Olympiads,

All members of the United States team were boys until 1998, when 16-year-old Melanie Wood, a cheerleader, student newspaper editor and math whiz from a private school in Indianapolis, made the team. She won a silver medal, missing the gold by a single point. Since then, two female high school students, Alison Miller, from upstate New York, and Sherry Gong, whose parents emigrated to the United States from China, have made the United States team (they both won gold).

By comparison, relatively small Bulgaria has sent 21 girls to the competition since 1959 (six since 1988), according to the study, and since 1974 the highly ranked Bulgarian, East German/German and Soviet Union/Russian IMO teams have included 9, 10 and 13 girls respectively.

The analogy between math and sport is certainly a rich one. Both require hard work and discipline in order to excel. Both should be included in any child’s education. And both attract people to their summer camps.

At the same time, there is quite a wide cultural divide that is perceived between these two groups. Athletes are put on pedestals (literal and metaphorical), and their toned physiques are heralded as the pinnacle of human achievement. They are also widely regarded for their dedication, their determination, and nobody questions their hygiene. Sadly, the same cannot be said for mathematicians.

To combat this inequality, why shouldn’t it be the case that top performers from both fields should be able to have their face on a Wheaties box? Certainly breakfast is the most important meal of the day for both athletes and mathletes – we should emphasize this point by highlighting the achievements of mathematicians on the orange box we all know and love.

2. Put a mathematician on The Simpsons.

Sure, The Simpsons doesn’t hold quite the cultural sway that it used to, but its longevity shows that it has carved out an enduring place for itself in our culture. It is still quite popular, and has its share of devotees, and for this reason many people still pay attention to what it has to say, even if it may have been eclipsed by other series (animated or otherwise) in recent years. In this respect, it is a bit like the Hillary Clinton of prime time television.

Therefore, it stands to reason that having a mathematician lend their voice to an episode of The Simpsons, if handled in the right way, certainly couldn’t hurt to flip the cultural perception of mathematics on its head. The Simpsons has featured hundreds of guest stars: celebrities, heads of state, authors, athletes … the list goes on. Moreover, a move to bring in a mathematician would not be entirely unprecedented – Stephen Hawking has made not one, but two guest appearances on the show, and although he is a physicist rather than a mathematician, it would not be such a huge leap to move from a guest star of the former occupation to a guest star of the latter.

Of course, we could give the show the benefit of the doubt, and assume that despite their best efforts, producers have been unable to find mathematicians who would be willing or able to participate. Should this be the case, I am willing to humbly submit myself for such duties. I believe I am able to shoulder the tremendous responsibility that such an opportunity would entail.

Stephen Hawking: Bringing theoretical physics
to the forefront of pop culture since 1999.

Any news that can help persuade women to enter mathematically demanding fields is good news. Not only because America needs to retain all the talent it can, but also because every math department party tends to be a huge stag fest. Single ladies, if you’re ever looking for a man, look no further than the event calendar for your university’s local math department. But watch out, if things keep trending the way this article is suggesting, that well will dry up in no time.

One important point that the article makes is that the standardized tests from which the data were collected did not seem to adequately test complex problem solving. This is natural, considering how poorly we are educating students in mathematics. It may be easy, therefore, to dismiss the results of this study with an argument that girls haven’t actually caught up. Instead, the tests have merely gotten easier.

To refute this, I humbly present the following article, regarding a similar study, also published in the journal Science, but with decidedly less fanfare.

Let me highlight the main points of the article:

In search of bridges across the math gender gap, Sapienza and her colleagues analyzed data from more than 276,000 children in 40 countries … Sapienza’s team found that, in more gender equal societies, the gender gap in math disappears. For example, the math gender gap almost disappeared in Sweden (GGI = 0.81), while girls scored 23 points below boys in math in Turkey (GGI = 0.59). Not only did average girls’ scores improve as equality improved, but the number of girls reaching the highest levels of performance also increased…

The research also found a striking gender gap in reading skills. In every country girls perform better than boys in reading In more gender equal societies, the girls’ advantage in reading over boys increases further. On average, girls have reading scores that are 32.7 points higher than those of boys (6.6 percent higher than the mean average score for boys). In Turkey, this amounts to 25.1 points higher and in Iceland, girls score 61.0 points higher.

Said Sapienza, “Our research indicates that in more gender equal societies, girls will gain an absolute advantage relative to boys.”

Are girls as smart as boys? No. Apparently they are smarter. Of course, any girl will tell you such a conclusion is hardly worthy of publication – they already knew as much.

Kudos to these studies for trying to break down some barriers to entry for mathematics. Let’s hope the boys can keep up.