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Study of 1.6 Million Grades Shows Little Gender Difference in Math and Science at School (theconversation.com) 370

A study of school grades of more than 1.6 million students shows that girls and boys perform similarly in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects. From a report: The research, published today in Nature Communications, also shows that girls do better than boys in non-STEM subjects. Our results provide evidence that large gaps in the representation of women in STEM careers later in life are not due to differences in academic performance. One explanation for gender imbalance in STEM is the "variability hypothesis." This is the idea that gender gaps are much larger at the tails of the distribution -- among the highest and lowest performers -- than in the middle.
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Study of 1.6 Million Grades Shows Little Gender Difference in Math and Science at School

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  • Equal abilities (Score:2, Interesting)

    Boys and girls have both the same abilities. However boys tend to be more inclined to pursue studies in science.
    • by Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:15AM (#57379144) Journal

      Boys and girls have both the same abilities. However, boys tend to be more inclined to pursue studies in science.

      ...or less inclined to follow arts-based courses. This study also shows that girls are better than boys at non-STEM courses by a far more significant margin than the reversed difference in STEM courses at school. So perhaps the deficit in STEM degrees is because more women choose non-STEM degrees where they do have an ability advantage, on average, over men?

      • by PackMan97 ( 244419 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:40AM (#57379348)
        If girls are better at A than boys, but only as good as boys at B, it stands to reason that girls will favor A over B. That's exactly what is happening. Girls go into subjects in which they excel. It frustrates me that no one ever looks at why aren't more men teachers, nurses, social workers, etc. Part of the problem is that not enough women are going into STEM as "we" would like, but the flipside is that not enough men are going into non-STEM. Why don't we try and get more men into non-STEM careers and see what happens?
        • Why get frustrated? Men tend to view male teachers nurse etc as weak(even though it is a lie) and so stay away from those fields.

          Male nurses tend to even get paid more as they have the muscles to move some of the overweight patients around easier.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        But do you believe that women really do have an innate advantage in non-STEM subjects?

        And why are there certain very specific exceptions to this rule? The classic example is the difference between nurses and doctors.

        • by lgw ( 121541 )

          "Subjects" or "fields"? Women will have a large career advantage over men at teaching young children, regardless of ability, because the men are assumed to be pedophiles. People have a preference for fields they are likely to succeed in, which is separate from ability in a subject.

          That's kind of the point of a lot of the "OMG gender!" stuff going on, right? Accusations that some fields are unwelcoming to women, regardless of ability?

          There are no doubt biological differences in ability. There are no dou

      • by Nite_Hawk ( 1304 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:55AM (#57379456) Homepage

        There is supporting evidence for your hypothesis:

        http://journals.sagepub.com/do... [sagepub.com]

        I think the explanation that high-achieving women tend to be proficient in both verbal and math abilities while men are more likely to be proficient primarily in math abilities is pretty compelling. It's possible that preference is the primary driver, but I'm not sure you can really separate preference and ability so cleanly.

        Look at the gender breakdown of medical specialties here:

        https://wire.ama-assn.org/educ... [ama-assn.org]

        Notice how men tend to gravitate toward roles that involve less human interaction? Surgery, Anesthesiology, Radiology. There's no shame in admitting that women might be simultaneously as good as men at Math, but better, or at least more likely to enjoy, roles that require high levels of verbal aptitude as well.

    • by mysidia ( 191772 )

      Boys and girls have both the same abilities.

      That's not been shown by the research.... only that the performance of the people that choose to take the STEM classes are on average: Mean performance basically the same across genders.

      As mentioned in the summary: There may be gender-related differences among the tails of the distributions --- those that performed much better or much worse than average, for example the top 10% of performers in STEM courses and the bottom 10% might represent one gender mor

    • by bob4u2c ( 73467 )
      Most test scores only measure the ability for someone to remember the correct answer long enough to get it on paper.

      Interest on the other hand determines what field people go into.

      For example, I had A+'s in Art, but it never appealed to me. On the other hand I had B's in Math, which did interest me. Guess which career path I took?
  • STEM jobs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @09:49AM (#57378976) Homepage Journal
    There isn't a big financial incentive to go into STEM jobs if you are a college-educated professional. The pay is good, but there is a limit to your professional growth and you have to actually do work and produce results. In reality, sales and marketing at tech companies make as much or more as STEM people. So unless you really enjoy STEM, it is better off avoiding it as a career. I think many women have figured this out.
    • If you work in tech or manufacturing, a lot of marketing and sales executives - and for that matter, managers - are former engineers.

      There is some selection bias here for me, but when I lived in NYC I was shocked by how many people involved with trading were former engineers, physicists, etc. Finding signal in noise, trends in data, ability to logically think through problems, understanding human weaknesses in data analysis, etc are all great skills to have.

      • Define "a lot". "A lot" are not. Most marketing and sales executives are not former engineers.
        • Enough that it appears to be a viable path.

      • If only this were the case at every org but it isn't.
    • In reality, sales and marketing at tech companies make as much or more as STEM people.

      But these are not the same fields and attract very different personalities. I would rather shovel sludge in sewers then work in sales or marketing. Not that I have anything against those fields; but cold calling or schmoozing people to me is not something I enjoy.

      However, I will make the argument that for a larger proportion of women the opposite is true. Thus it has more to do with what you enjoy and less to do with how much you get paid. I also believe this is one of the big contributing factors to why wo

      • "I would rather shovel sludge in sewers then work in sales or marketing"

        Great. So go do it. The point is that rational people would rather work in sales or marketing than shovel sludge.
        • Re:STEM jobs (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Wycliffe ( 116160 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:42AM (#57379366) Homepage

          Great. So go do it. The point is that rational people would rather work in sales or marketing than shovel sludge.

          Luckily there are a lot of different types of people in the world or we would be in trouble. I have a coworker that quit an office job to go back to pouring concrete because he hated being inside all the time. The show Dirty Jobs is full of millionaires who do essential work to keep the world running, it just happens to be gross at times. Related to the topic at hand, there are very few women on Dirty Jobs. Men are more inclined to fill a need and do a dirty job than women and they get paid well for doing it.

      • > I would rather shovel sludge in sewers then work in sales or marketing.

        Huh. I worked sales at JCpenney for 10 years. I worked in a clean, air conditioned environment, and met tons of beautiful young ladies.

        I would definitely not trade that for shoveling sludge.

    • by Kjella ( 173770 )

      There isn't a big financial incentive to go into STEM jobs if you are a college-educated professional. The pay is good, but there is a limit to your professional growth and you have to actually do work and produce results. In reality, sales and marketing at tech companies make as much or more as STEM people. So unless you really enjoy STEM, it is better off avoiding it as a career. I think many women have figured this out.

      With all due respect, it's overwhelmingly women who become primary school teachers and nurses which are two of the absolutely most dead-end and poorly paying careers relative to their education level. So while I could say a lot about sales and marketing, I don't think women shy away from STEM because they generally make "smarter" choices. And by the way if it was that easy, why is it that most tech people are terrible at sales? I mean even in job interviews some people struggle to give even a fair impressio

      • Re:STEM jobs (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Wycliffe ( 116160 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:46AM (#57379386) Homepage

        With all due respect, it's overwhelmingly women who become primary school teachers and nurses which are two of the absolutely most dead-end and poorly paying careers relative to their education level.

        Teaching yes but not nursing. Nursing is a fairly highly paid job that only requires 2 years of school. My ex-wife had a bachelors in english and went back for an associates(RN) in nursing because nursing pays much better than almost any job you can get with a english degree.

        • low pay for teaching is mostly a US phenomenon. There are many countries where teachers, including elementary school teachers, are earning quite well.
      • With all due respect, it's overwhelmingly women who become primary school teachers

        So? That's a very recent phenomenon which is as good as proof as you'll get that it's entirely social factors.

    • > sales and marketing

      I cannot watch movies or listen to audiobooks with those 2 careers. As an engineer, I can.

      > I think many women have figured this out.

      I read one time that most women choose careers they LIKE and enjoy (such as healthcare), whereas most men choose careers they don't really like, but they know the higher pay will support a wife + kids.

      Apparently the theory still exists: https://www.theatlantic.com/ed... [theatlantic.com]

  • by Gerald Butler ( 3528265 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @09:50AM (#57378986)

    >> also shows that girls do better than boys in non-STEM subjects.

    So, we need to have a massive influx of cash, capital, action to ensure that boys catch up to girls in non-STEM subjects. Boys go to and graduate from college less frequently than girls. There needs to be massive encouragement and support for boys to attend college. Something must be done. It is unconscionable that boys are being left behind like this. There seems to be a massive, systematic, institutional prejudice against boys that is causing them to fail. Something must be done. Boys are 50% of the population, but, they are not 50% of College graduates. Something must be done. There should be scholarships and camps and meetings and web-sites and discussion forums and bridge groups. This is absolutely unfair and shows a great prejudice and discrimination against boys and maleness.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Well, yes, something should be done. After all we care about helping every child to fulfil their potential, right?

      And yes, it is massive, systemic and institutional. Breaking down the barriers that boys face is the way to solve it.

      Some of it is even discrimination. I've heard of boys being told that cooking and even book clubs are not for them, due to toxic ideas of what masculinity is and apparently the teacher wanting the club to be girls only.

      Remarkably insightful post.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by b0bby ( 201198 )

      I realize that this was intended as sarcasm, but in my kids schools there was a Communication Arts magnet program. They bent over backwards to get enough boys in that program to get somewhat equal numbers of boys and girls. So at least in some areas, there is an attempt to achieve balance by encouraging and supporting boys.

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by grasshoppa ( 657393 )

      Kinda sad this got modded as "Funny" ( as of right now anyway ), it's more +5 Sad because you know it won't happen. Men and boys are expendable, they exist to support and provide for women...and that's precisely how society views them.

      Welcome to the "patriarchy".

      As an aside, I'm conflicted on encouraging more people to go to college. Funding is already a shitshow ( student loans being guaranteed, colleges having blank checks ), and the indoctrination environment on college campuses aren't healthy for peop

    • by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:47AM (#57379402) Journal

      I'm looking forward to the new Google counterpart to their "Ovaries in Coding" initiative:
      Training & Educational Synergies Toward Individuals Creating Leading Experiences, ie Google TESTICLE.

    • isn't to improve their lives, it's to increase the supply of STEM graduates and decrease their pay. It's not nothing to do with Gender inequality. There's no shortage of non-STEM graduates and their pay is plenty low enough, so nobody's going to throw money at them.

      Don't forget, our education system isn't there to enrich lives, it's there to make people (at the top) rich. Heck, it started out as a system to train farm hands how to put up with factory work. I suppose we could change that, but nobody seems
    • by swb ( 14022 )

      You laugh, but we complain about this a lot.

      Up through middle school we would get project assignments from non-art teachers that involved what amounted to an arts and crafts project (eg, a history assignment that was a diorama about Lincoln or something).

      My son always got bad grades on those projects despite having a B+ or an A in the class generally because art wasn't his thing, and the grading on the project was biased towards its artistic content. I would inevitably go in to gripe about the grade he got

  • by supercell ( 1148577 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:10AM (#57379112)
    Considering the authors, the funding source and even that they get funding to study gender issues, smells of a biased result.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:24AM (#57379220)

      Affiliations
              Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, NSW, Australia
                      R. E. O’Dea, M. Lagisz & S. Nakagawa

              Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, 2601, ACT, Australia
                      R. E. O’Dea & M. D. Jennions

      Contributions
      S.N. and M.D.J. conceived the study, R.E.O. and M.L. collected data, R.E.O., M.L. and S.N. conducted analyses. All authors contributed to interpretation of the results and writing the manuscript.

      Competing interests
      The authors declare no competing interests.

      Is there some specific bias that either the University of New South Wales or the Australian National University is known for in these subjects?

  • by m00sh ( 2538182 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:18AM (#57379172)

    When I taught math or science, the girls were always among the top of the class.

    The main reason was that they cared about their grades.

    However, they never seemed to enjoy geeking out or talking about things that weren't going to be on the test.

    I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Girls would invest in coming to class, taking notes, coming to study and tutoring sessions and really asking for help when they needed it.

    Guys weren't as social. Some guys would have problems and not ask for help and do horribly in the end.

    Grades are very artificial. They can be gamed since the teacher is giving the grade (it's not a third party assessment). You can get As and not learn much but also get a D and learn a lot.

    What really should be looked at is expertise and not grades.

    Of course, with every generalization I've made, I remember plenty of exceptions.

    • As soon as you give people a metric they're judged by, they optimize for that metric rather than do quality work.
      --Eva Infeld [twitter.com], mathematician

      In other words, girls are better at gaming the system.

    • However, they never seemed to enjoy geeking out or talking about things that weren't going to be on the test.

      To see a clear demonstration, check out youtube videos on electronics/metal/woodworking vs videos on arts & crafts. There's a clear gender division, even though there's an extremely low barrier to stream a hobby video.

  • Some of the better scientists I've worked with in pharmaceutical chemistry and manufacturing were women. There were also great men as well. We worked in an encouraging environment that gave opportunities to present our data and to try out new hypothesizes without fear of being belittled for the experiments failing. Removing the competition aspect of the job (i.e. I've got to be better than s/he to get ahead) and focusing on collaboration and brainstorming with your fellow scientists allowed both genders
  • From the summary: "One explanation for gender imbalance in STEM is the "variability hypothesis." This is the idea that gender gaps are much larger at the tails of the distribution -- among the highest and lowest performers -- than in the middle."

    I have a hard time believing that out of 1.6M students the ends of the bell curve vary so extremely from those in the middle. Maybe there are other systematic issues.... just maybe? Not that I think we're going to fix systematic issues overnight, but we don't do our

  • If girls are better at non-STEM subjects, and equals at STEM subjects, shouldn't the STEM fields skew towards boys?

    An average girl has less competition in a non-STEM field (due to boys under-performing), but more competition in a STEM field (do to boys and girls performing equally). So some girls will choose non-STEM over STEM.

    While the average boy is less likely to be able to compete in a non-STEM field (due to boys doing worse in non-STEM subjects). So by elimination, that means more boys will go i

  • by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @11:17AM (#57379610) Journal

    Grades are ... highly elastic things.

    I have kids in grade school right now. Sometimes they get to redo assignments if they did badly on them, sometimes they even get to redo tests. Sometimes homework counts for a lot, sometimes a little. Sometimes extra credit is possible, sometimes it isn't. Some teachers offer more extra help, some less.

    There's a lot of room for ... what shall we call it, fudge factor? And I'm pretty sure I know what direction the pressure would be in this scenario.

    So first things first; we may not "know" what we think we know from this study at all.

    • by anegg ( 1390659 )

      Grades are ... highly elastic things.

      I have two kids, one (male) a junior in high school, the other (female) a freshman in college. I and my wife both have STEM degrees and STEM careers. We also both organize and run extra-curricular STEM education programs (FIRST Robotics) for grades K-12. So... the subject of gender and STEM comes up a lot for us, as do grades versus ability.

      Both of my kids suck at getting grades. Mostly due to missed assignments (aka homework). My daughter passed the AP Chemistry exam, but failed her AP Chemistry clas

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