Why fewer women succeed in math

Summers already faced criticism because the number of senior job offers to women had dropped each year of his three-year presidency. He has promised to work on the problem. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

As soon as mathematician Chad Topaz ripped the plastic off his copy of the American Mathematical Society's magazine Notices , he was disappointed. Staring back at him from the cover were the faces of 13 of his fellow mathematicians—all of them men, and the majority of them white. Topaz, a professor at Macalester College, knew that his field had a gender problem. In mathematics, just 15 percent of tenure-track positions are held by women , one of the lowest percentages among the sciences , along with computer science 18 percent , and engineering 14 percent.

Despite training in a field with so few women, Topaz had the unusual experience of having women as both his Ph. Topaz grew increasingly interested in understanding why women were so underrepresented in his field, and then had a daughter, who he says loves math and science. Editors call the shots on which papers get published in their journals—and this affects the ultimate direction of a field. On an individual level, being asked to join an editorial board is an important career milestone for academics.

Academia and other sectors need to adjust tenure and promotion paths to tap more fully into the reservoir of female talent, Ceci says. The Cornell researchers spent more than three years examining gender-difference findings in endocrinology, educational psychology, sociology and other fields. Promoters of the innate-superiority argument in math, Ceci says, point to U.

But if that was a conclusive indicator, he argues, U. In fact, their numbers are far less. In Canada, women make up only But in some other countries, Ceci says, female students actually outnumber boys in the elite math tiers. So scratch off biology as the sole explanation, he says. The Cornell researchers also eliminated bias and discrimination as primary factors. For example, 43 percent of married female physicists are married to other physicists, whereas only 6 percent of male physicists have physicist spouses.

A related conference—on ways gender analysis can contribute to research in science and engineering—is scheduled for April on campus. A publication of Stanford's Office of University Communications. Stanford , California Copyright Complaints Trademark Notice. Skip to content. Menu Search form Search term.

Stanford Report, February 9, No evidence of innate gender differences in math and science, scholars assert. Cicero "The bottom line is we are still very much in the state of mixed findings when it comes to gender and brain processing," said Ruth O'Hara, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Cicero Londa Schiebinger said marital patterns may discourage women from staying on a career track. Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Stanford Report Receive daily Stanford news Email address.