So girls are just as good at math?

Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2008-07-25 00:25

Article here. My first calc T.A. was female and she knew math like it was nobody's business. So whenever I have heard stuff like the usual bull about girls needing loads of encouragement to pursue math, again I can only shake my head. So what it is then? Girls are or aren't as good at/better than boys at math? For feminists the answer will always be no, since that is how they can get colleges to go with the Title IX-based attack on science and math they are planning, as this article reveals quickly after declaring the study's results. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON - Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, "Math class is tough!" girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science.

Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believing it wind up avoiding harder math classes.

"It keeps girls and women out of a lot of careers, particularly high-prestige, lucrative careers in science and technology," Hyde said.

That's changing, though slowly.

Women are now earning 48 percent of undergraduate college degrees in math; they still lag far behind in physics and engineering.'

I do believe if women earned 99% of all math and science degrees except in Botany, the news would be all about how women are lagging in the all-important, lucrative field of Botanical Sciences and that massive efforts to redress this would be in the offing-- taxpayer-funded.

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Also received a submission from user 'Duncan' as follows:

{quotes article} at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25836419/ and notes:

"There is a discussion board for the article."

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Comments

Yeah, if you make boys just as stupid as girls, then girls of course will be just as tough as boys. )) But will it help to make America more economically viable country?

----------------------------------------------------
Single men is the only social group benefited from feminism.

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Submitted by nbdspcl on Fri, 2008-07-25 01:31

Men's brains are larger and have more gray matter than women's, which means greater processing power. Also men are more focused, which is what is required to do math.
-ax

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Submitted by axolotl on Fri, 2008-07-25 09:54

I read somewhere that maths questions are moving more to being written out in english rather than just having them writ out in numbers only. Apparantly this is to give girls an advantage since they tend to be better at reading, probably because the english curriculum is suited to girls. Also coursework plays a part in a 50% of the marks, at least they do in European schools, so it takes away the pressure to perform, which I think is when most boys rise to the occasion, hence giving boys less reason to be motivated if there is no pressure to perform.

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Submitted by Broadsword on Fri, 2008-07-25 10:51

manonthestreet

Be careful here. I think what really needs looking at here is what it is that constitutes mathematics. I suspect that what has been taught as mathematics has changed over the years. Those elements which girls find harder than boys have probably been systematically removed. So in effect a new subject is created which is called mathematics but is in fact just a new feminized subject which favours girls. My guess is that over the years ever test has been examined and those topics where boy do better than girls have been systematically either removed or changed until boys no longer did well.

I think what this 'news' shows is the utter determination of the female state to displace and relegate all aspects of maleness to the second rate.

Also don't forget the destructive element in femaleness which seeks not only to promote itself but also do down men.

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Submitted by trotter on Fri, 2008-07-25 14:06

Unsurprisingly ABCNEWS is also on the bandwagon. Their article is here.

Also unsurprisingly... no mention of how girls are heavily outperforming the boys in reading.

Business as usual for ABCNEWS? You betcha.

______________________________________

Vince
http://againstmisandry.blogspot.com

"Stand up for what is right, especially if you stand alone."

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Submitted by Vince on Fri, 2008-07-25 17:12

Math is Math.

There's nothing one take out and/or change as it were. Especially at the university level. The only thing I can see is that maybe in grade school, which I assume is what the article is about, one could (as was said) explain some of the example problems "in words", but that would merely be to facilitate a child's learning - they must still understand the numerical concepts to get the problem right - even if the final exam were all "word problems" too Actually now that I think of it, that type of thing has always been around: "If Johnny has five eggs, and ...". Five is still five. There is no way to solve the problem without an understanding of math concepts such as addition, subtraction, etc. Of course if it turns out to be true that that kind of thing makes it harder for boys, then maybe there's a legitimate argument to be made; but actually studies done in England have shown that when placed in single-sex classes, boys begin to meet and even exceed the girls in reading and writing, so boys appear to have no inherent shortcomings in these areas.

-ax

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Submitted by axolotl on Mon, 2008-07-28 00:49