Study Shows Gender Inequality Not Responsible for Girls Not Choosing STEM Field

[Nick Young]

Psychologists have discovered girls are less likely to pursue education and careers in STEM fields because they feel “negative emotions” toward math.

According to research from the University of Missouri, the University of California-Irvine, and the University of Glasgow, girls suffer from “mathematics anxiety” at a higher rate than boys.

In other words, girls don’t pursue math because math scares them.

The study claims mathematics anxiety “refers to the negative feelings (affect) experienced during the preparation of and during explicit engagement in mathematical pursuits.”

David Geary, Curators' professor of psychological sciences at the MU College of Arts and Sciences, said, “We analyzed student performance in 15-year olds from around the world along with socio-economic indicators in more than 60 countries and economic regions, including the U.S. and the United Kingdom.”

“Analysis revealed that girls’ mathematics anxiety was not related to the level of their mothers’ engagement in STEM careers, nor was it related to gender equality in the countries we studied. In fact, the gender difference in mathematics anxiety was larger in more gender-equal and developed countries,” he added.

“In more developed countries, boys’ and girls’ mathematics performance was higher and their mathematics anxiety was lower, but this pattern was stronger for boys than for girls,” Geary said.

Gijsbert Stoet, reader of philosophy at the University of Glasgow and one of the co-authors of the study, said, “Policies to attract more girls and women into subjects such as computer science, physics and engineering have largely failed.”

“Gender equality is a key humanistic value in enlightened and developed societies, but our research shows that policy makers cannot rely on it as the sole factor in getting more girls into subjects like physics and computer science. It is fair to say that nobody knows what will actually attract more girls into these subjects. Policies and programs to change the gender balance in non-organic STEM subjects have just not worked,” Stoet concluded.

http://www.mrctv.org/blog/study-girls-feel-more-negative-emotions-about-math-boys

It's almost as if women have the freedom and right to make their own decisions and study what they want to study.

[Dresta]

This is obvious. When I was at College taking my A-Levels (when you choose 3-4 subjects), there was only one girl in my Maths class, and two in my Physics class, and history was quite even; yet when I took a Religious Studies AS level (first year of the A-Level), there was only one other guy in the class with me (was by far the funnest class though).

Maths and Physics are predominately subjects that males have a preference for, and females have a preference for things like psychology and sociology, and other wishy-washy stuff. But don't expect facts to change the opinions of the warriors for social justice; nothing is capable of changing the mind of a fanatic. Biology is the only science where things are pretty even, but honestly, it is pretty soft in comparison to Chemistry and Physics, nor as important to study if you want a career in science.

[Nick Young]

This is obvious. When I was at College taking my A-Levels (when you choose 3-4 subjects), there was only one girl in my Maths class, and two in my Physics class, and history was quite even; yet when I took a Religious Studies AS level (first year of the A-Level), there was only one other guy in the class with me (was by far the funnest class though).
According to cultural Marxist social justice bigots, that's because the patriarchy is systematically oppressing women in STEM and making sure that all of the genius female engineers have no chance to succeed, despite the fact they are more talented and more eager to study STEM then the men are.

[NumberSix]

Actually, "gender" inequality is EXACTLY why women don't go into STEM. Because men and women ARE different, in general they make different life choices.

[90sgoat]

The poorer the country, the less 'equal', the more likely women are to study math and engineering.

This goes against anything the feminists claim about the evul patriarchy. The reason is that women in poor and patriarchal societies choose what to study out of rational choice, what gets them a job, while women in the west choose with their heart, disregarding if they can get a job or not.

[Hawker]

STEM dudes are very welcoming to women in STEM...even though we will never talk to you.