Sex Differences in Math and Science

I think both Steve and Elizabeth made excellent points. I've thought about this before, and I always find it stunning how, even within a field as supposedly objective as science, so much data can be interpreted in so many different ways. I find it very difficult to pick one position on this, but I have to say that I think Elizabeth has more of the answer here. She's very compromising in admitting that there are sex differences in math and science, but that both sexes have different strengths within the same field, and thus those advantages do not add up to make one sex better at math or science than the other.

I think she also makes a great point that while parents report treating their children the same, there are differences in perception that lead to subconscious parenting differences. And those differences don't just relate to parents and children, but employers as well. I particularly loved that she made the point that this is not necessarily sexism at work. Men and women were more likely to make stereotypical assumptions about sex and gender (those pesky binaries again!).

This goes along with my favorite point of Steve's, that a person's personal interests have a large effect on what field ze chooses to go into. I disagreed with Elizabeth that women will often choose not to go into those fields because they feel they have "less of a chance." On the contrary, I think that undermines women's drive to be successful. If women and men really do have the same amount of overall skill, and a person's self-confidence acknowledges that, then there's no reason for zir to not pursue a career in math or science. As a matter of fact, I think many women in math and science would be motivated to attempt landing a math/science career (assuming, of course, that it is their area of interest), just to prove that they can. However, I do agree with Elizabeth that this hypothesis is nearly impossible to test, because isolating and removing variables like gender stereotyping is next to impossible (for now at least).

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you think it will ever be possible to conclusively test why people are particularly interested in one subject over another?

2. What variables would need to be eliminated to make such an experiment possible?