Transcript Women in Science: Against all odds

Women in Science:
Against All Odds
Rosalind Chait Barnett, Ph.D.
Community, Families & Work Program
Women’s Studies Research Center
Brandeis University
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There are at least three gender
stereotypic beliefs that are
widely held, often repeated,
and taken to bolster the idea
that women’s underrepresentation in math and
science is inevitable.
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• Women have never made it into the
ranks of the most accomplished
mathematicians and scientists.
• Innately, women don’t have what it
takes to succeed in math and
science.
• Women’s brains, cognitive skills,
motivations, and hormones are
deficient.
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Women have never made
it into the ranks of the
most accomplished
mathematicians and
scientists.
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European Renaissance:
th
th
14 -17 Centuries
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Amazing abundance of male
super-star scientists
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Pierre de Fermat
(1601 - 1665 )
generally regarded as
the greatest number
theorist of all times
Nicholaus
Copernicus
(1473 - 1543) called
the founder of
modern astronomy
Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642) called the
"father of modern
observational astronomy",
“modern physics", & the
"father of science".
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Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
one of the most important
scientists in the field of
astronomy, having been the
first to explain planetary
motion
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Sir Isaac Newton (16421727) the greatest
mathematician of his
generation and considered
one of the foremost scientific
intellects of all time.
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During this extraordinary
period, what were the
women doing?
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Elite women had only two life
options:
• An arranged marriage
• Life in a convent
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For elite women, annual pregnancy was
the general rule; contraceptives were not
widely introduced until the 18th century.
Fraser, A. (1984). The weaker vessel: Knopf.
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What was
convent life like?
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Is it any wonder that the pursuit
of science was then and has
continued to be deemed a male
pursuit?
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With the Protestant
Reformation and the decline
of convent life, other
obstacles to women’s
education emerged in
Europe and in the U.S.
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“As the brain develops, the ovaries
shrivel” (Fausto-Sterling, A. (1985). Myths of gender. New York: Basic Books)
“Education will undermine their
health and that of their future children”
“Education will decrease their
willingness to do housework or obey their
husbands”
“Education will lead to their inclusion
in men’s activities and to taking over
men’s jobs”
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Are universities hostile places for women faculty?
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Does the peer-review system evaluate
women and men on an equal basis?
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Two Swedish scientists noted that
female scientists applying for
prestigious fellowships at the
Swedish Medical Research Council
(MRC) during the 1990s had been
less than half as successful as
male applicants.
Wenneras, C., & Wold, A. (1997). Nepotism and sexism in peer-review. Nature, 387(22 May), 341-343.
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Three subjective evaluation
parameters:
1. Scientific competence,
2. Relevance of the research
proposal, and
3. The quality of the proposed
methodology.
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The inference is that women earned
lower scores because they were less
productive.
But were they?
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Did men and women with equal objective
scientific productivity scores receive the
same subjective competence ratings by the
MRC reviewers?
NO!
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Figure 1: The mean competence score given to male (red squares) and female (blue squares) applicants by the
MRC reviewers as a function of their scientific productivity, measured as total impact. One impact point equals one
paper published in a journal with an impact
factor
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Wenneras, C., & Wold, A. (1997). Nature, 387 (22 May), 341-343.
To be awarded the same competence
score as a male colleague, a female
scientist would have to produce
approximately three extra papers in
high-impact journals such as Nature
or Science or 20 extra papers in
excellent specialist journals such as
Atherosclerosis, Gut, Infection and
Immunity, Neuroscience or Radiology.
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In sum, a female applicant had to be
2.5 times more productive than the
average male applicant to receive the
same competence score.
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This study provides direct
evidence that the peer-review
system is subject to sex bias.
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Women don’t have what it
takes to succeed in math
and science!
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A meta analysis of math aptitude scores
from 4,000,000 students, found that sex
differences were tiny.
Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. J. (1990). Gender differences in mathematics
performance: A meta analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 107(2), 139-155.
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Number of People
Gender differences in mathematics performance
Females
Males
Effect size = 0.15
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
Standardized Scores
Source: Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. J. (1990). Gender differences in mathematics performance: A
meta analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 139-155.
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Tests compared math scores of grammar
school kids in the U.S., Taiwan and Japan.
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• Spelke--five "core systems" at the foundation of
mathematical reasoning.
• First, a system for representing small exact
numbers of objects — the difference between one,
two, and three. (5 mos.)
• Second, understanding numerical magnitudes —
the difference between a set of about ten things
and a set of about 20 things.
• Third, a system of natural number concepts that
children construct as they learn verbal counting.
This takes place between about the ages of two
and a half and four years.
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• Fourth and Fifth are systems first seen in
children when they navigate: understanding the
geometry of the surrounding layout and
identifying landmark objects.
• There is, she notes, a biological foundation to
mathematical and scientific reasoning that
emerges in children before any formal
instruction. These systems develop equally in
males and females.
• “There’s not a hint of an advantage for boys
over girls in any of these five basic
systems.”
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Are Boys Better at Representing Numbers?
High performance
number scoring 90-100%
Average performance
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
girls
boys
No.
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Are Boys Better at Representing Objects?
High performance
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
girls
boys
number scoring 95-100%
percent correct performance
Average performance
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
4-8 years (N = 47)
girls
boys
4-8 years (N = 11)
No.
(Spelke, LaMont & Lizcano, aggregated data)
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Are Boys Better at Learning to Count?
3 year-old children
Number of participants
50
40
30
boys
girls
20
10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
counter
Highest known number
No male advantage on average or at
the highest levels.
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Map-Reading
Children typically begin to
understand map tasks at about 4
years.
Considerable variability in map
reading at all ages.
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Are Boys Better at Map Reading?
number of participants
4 year-old children
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
girls
boys
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
percentile score
No.
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Women’s brains, cognitive
skills, motivations, and
hormones are deficient.
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Brain Structure
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“men have
“systemizing”
brains, whereas
women have
“empathizing”
brains”
(Baron-Cohen, 2003, p. 27)
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Brain Structure
Male Systematizing Brain
Female Empathizing Brain
Mastery of hunting
Making friends
Mastery of tracking
Mothering
Trading
Gossiping
Achieving & maintaining power
“Reading” your partner
Gaining expertise
Tolerating solitude
Taking on leadership roles
Using aggression
– Simon Baron-Cohen, The essential difference: The truth about the male and female brain. New York: Basic Books, 2003.
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Brain Structure
• “The brains of men differ from the brains of
women in several ways. Men have larger brains
with more neurons (even correcting for body
size) though women have a larger percentage of
grey matter. Since men and women are equally
intelligent overall, the significance of these
differences is unknown.”
- Steven Pinker
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Cognitive Skills
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In the experimental group, both male
and female college students improved
with training on the mental rotation test.
However, females showed greater
improvement than males, such that the
prior gender differences were
substantially reduced on the mental
rotation task.
Feng, J., Spence, I., & Pratt, J. (2007). Playing an action video reduces gender differences in
spatial cognition. Psychological Science, 18(10), 850-855.
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IMPLICATIONS
• Visuospatial skills can be learned, they are
neither innate nor immutable.
• Training with an appropriately designed
action-video game could play a significant
role as part of a larger strategy designed
to interest women in science and
engineering careers.
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All students with low scores on
a test of visuospatial ability
were encouraged to enroll in a
course to improve these skills.
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The gains made by students on
these spatial-skills tests as a result
of participation in the course were
statistically and materially
significant.
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Hormonal Differences
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Boys’ higher level of testosterone
causes them to strive for
dominance, exhibit more
aggression and competition.
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Typical testosterone levels by developmental stage
and gender (in nanograms per deciliter of blood.)
Men
Developmental
Stage
Women
Level
60
Range
15-120
Level
3
Range
1-10
3
1-10
3
1-10
8 until puberty
100
20-300
15
3-30
Young adult
600
200-1,000
50
15-100
60 yrs old
300
30-600
30
3-60
Prenatal & First 7
mos.
1-7 yrs old
Goldstein, J. S. (2001). Table 3.1, War and gender: How gender shapes the war system and vice versa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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Testosterone
Testosterone
Social Behavior
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Women are not motivated to
work long hours.
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“Given the hours people work, it should come
as no surprise that many employees (63
percent) would like to work less. There is no
difference in the proportions of men and
women who would like to work fewer hours,
and both would reduce their current total work
week by about 11 hours on average if they
could.
Bond, J. T., Galinsky, E., & Swanberg, J. E. (1998). The 1997 national study of the changing workforce
(No. W98-01). New York: Families and Work Institute.)
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From 1997 to 2007
Fewer Mothers Prefer Full-time Work
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• “Part-Time Looks Fine To Working
Mothers; 60% Prefer It to Full-Time
Washington Post, July 12, 2007
• Work or stay at home? It’s still a
quandary; Moms struggle with guilt
over their choices. USA Today, October 3, 2007
• Gap widens in how moms view
working USA Today, July 12, 2007
• The Full-Time Blues The New York Times, July
24, 2007
• Moms eye part-time jobs to achieve
work-life balance The Christian Science Monitor,
September 17, 2007
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Were the conclusions
supported by the Pew
Research Center Study?
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Sample of Mothers
1997
2007
Full-Time
32% (N=101)
24% (N=54)
Part-time
48% (N=152)
60% (N=155)
Not working
20% (N=63)
19% (N=49)
Total Mothers
317
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Reports of work-hours preferences “are
very sensitive to question wording” (p.
620). Some questions “are less than
ideal because they do not mention
income and may thus encourage
respondents to report the number of
hours they would work if it had no
impact on their incomes (p. 624).
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Considering everything, what
would be the ideal situation for
you—working full-time, working
part-time, or not working at all
outside the home?
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The Power of
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
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Parent-Child Interactions
1. Giving Directions
2. Talking about evidence without causal
connections
3. Providing explanations about causal
connections.
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Crowley, K., Callanan, M. A., Tenenbaum,
H. R.,on&the
Allen,
E.and
(2001).
Parents
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during shared scientific thinking. Psychological Science, 12(3).
Crowley, K., Callanan, M. A., Tenenbaum,
H. R.,on&the
Allen,
E.and
(2001).
Parents
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during shared scientific thinking. Psychological Science, 12(3).
Thus, parents may quite unconsciously, be
creating a gender bias in science learning
years before their kids ever even see the
insides of a science classroom.
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• Mothers in particular have a strong and
long-lasting influence on career choices
for their daughters. For example:
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Bleeker, M. M., & Jacobs, J. E. (2004). Achievement in math and science: Do mothers' beliefs matter 12 years later?
Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(1), 13.
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Thus, to fully understand
women’s success in math
and science, experiential,
cultural, and organizational
factors need to be taken into
account.
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The legacy and future of
feminism is the constant
challenging of gender
stereotypes that limit
opportunities for women and
men.
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Same
Difference
Rosalind Barnett
and
Caryl Rivers
www.same-diff.com
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