Men and Women in the Fields of Math and Science

Is there really a difference between men and women’s abilities to comprehend and excel in the fields of math and science? From an early age boys and girls are considered pretty much equal in terms of brain development. Preschool boys and girls tend to score very similarly on standardized tests but that is about as long as the similarities last. From then on a girl’s brain tends to develop becoming more focused on verbal abilities while a boy’s begins to trend more toward the mathematics and science side of their schooling. The truth of the matter is there are more women in colleges and universities around the country. The women who do take math and science courses tend to outperform the males in the same course, however men still dominate these fields.

New research suggests that environmental factors also play a role in whether or not we take an interest in math and science. Could these factors lead all the way back to when we picked which toys to play with? I mean does a little girl deciding to have a tea party with her favorite stuffed animals make her more likely to take an interest in a subject like English because of the conversations she carried on with the stuffed animals? Or does a little boy playing with a dump truck or a toy car make him more interested in the engineering behind such a toy and what makes it work? Well I think it does! I believe that based on our previous experiences we begin to develop a set of likes and dislikes which further guide and determine things such as occupations and career aspirations. Recently I decided to count the number of students in my Heat Transfer course, an engineering course for anyone who doesn’t know, and I learned that there were 31 students in the class 28 males and 3 females. I think a large reason for the lopsided number of students comes from our previous encounters and in order to increase the number of women in fields such as engineering, mathematics, and science you’ve got to start young by encouraging them to engage themselves in experiences that may be considered outside the social norm.
Is it possible that women just have no interests in math and science regardless of environmental factors?
What if anything can be done to increase women’s aspirations in these fields?