Photograph by Orren Jack Turner, Princeton, N.J. Modified with Photoshop by PM_Poon and later by Dantadd. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Are men better than women at math? I have often wondered if this is a genetic tendency just as men have better spacial (not special) sense than women. Since women are wired with a stronger sense of smell you would think I could smell a sexist generalization, but I sense that there may be something to this. As a writer, the common stereotype applies, I personally prefer letters to numbers, and especially abhor word problems but love logic puzzles. How’s that for typical? And since there are writers of both sexes, I guess that generalization is more grandiose than Texas. I digress, after watching a match genius on The Ellen Show, who is of course male, and who could add 10 numbers in seconds after they were flashed in (fast) sequence, I was astounded at his skill. It is a skill, he confirmed, not a “gift” as some may conclude. He works at it 8 hours a day, every day. That is love.
Image By NASA on The Commons (NACA Physicist Studying Alpha Rays) [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons.
The following day I learned of a promising young physicist named Sabrina Pasterski. Sabrina is currently at MIT (is a graduate of MIT and has a Harvard PhD), is only 22, and has been compared with Stephen Hawking in her studies on black holes, spacetime and good old (specifically quantum) gravity. Jobs in her field are few for either gender, clearly Sabrina was a different type of girl from Chicagoland, she built her first plane and flew solo by the age of 14.
"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science."
-Albert Einstein
I had been thinking about this same question for a while when I began to notice in my own community the gender of local CPA’s, a very strong leaning toward the female gender. I decided to do some Googling and discovered a Stanford report dated Spring 2011 from the Journal of Economic Perspectives that confirms the gap in overall math test scores have a long history, and continue this trend today of leaning toward men. The research they conducted posed the question if ‘nature vs. nurture’ played a role in this statistic and/ or if our hunter/gatherer roles play a part in the Venus vs Mars scenario.
Image of Math Deck By Fieibiaiow (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
In brief, the Stanford study concludes for a variety of legitimate and backed-up research, society itself is more to blame than any other factor. As if further case studies were necessary, in Sabrina's case she is likely part of a one percentile in America that isn't on Social Media, doesn't use a smartphone, has never taken a sip of alcohol and has never had a boyfriend.
When I think of math geniuses I think of Einstein, Newton, of course, Planck and all practicing astrophysicists for that matter (or anti-matter). But I also prominently think of Ada Lovelace, founder of all ‘poetical science(s)’ and famously credited with the creation of the first algorithm, which subsequently led to the invention of the computer. Algorithms are oxygen to computers to get a little AI-morphic. (You have my permission to use that term in the future, it may come in 'handy')
Image of Sophie Kovalevskaya by Dahloff of Stockholm (Institut Mittag-Leffler) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Around the same time period as the life of the Countess of Lovelace (12/10/1815-11/27/1852) a Russian woman named Sofia Kovalevskaya, or Sophie Kowalevski (1/15/1850-2/10/1891) who was doing calculus for fun at age 11. Sofia, or Sonya became the first woman in Europe (c. 1874) to hold a doctorate in mathematics and has a theorem with her name in it. Don’t ask me what it says, theorems are like word problems and I am dyslexic when it comes to those too. While she has a lunar crater also named after her, as a woman she was never able to become a legitimate professor in her motherland (but was granted a ‘Chair in the Russian Academy of Sciences’) before she passed away of the flu at the young age of 41.
Image By Johannes Rössel (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Likely, History itself has something to do with the present, or how we remember the past at least. I was never taught in school about women math whizzes. Marie Curie and the nursing/science field is as far as the gender gap closed when I was young and impressionable. Even now there are no women listed on the ‘Hundred Greatest Mathematicians of the Past’ –not one. I’m not calling the Oscar white, but if we don’t record, be (impartially) all inclusive, and pass on information without egotistic filters, what good is History? Let me re-phrase, why waste the present on the past?
Image in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
I still don’t have the answer to my initial question, if men are better than women at math, but I still don’t think there is any sexism at play in the math scores of men being higher than women. In fact, I suspect most women prefer to operate behind the scenes. Even Bernie Sanders who is running for president said his wife ‘handles all that’ (meaning finances) in a recent interview. The current US Treasurer for that matter is Rosa Gumataotao Rois (interestingly the 6th Latina to serve this position (should we be looking at nationality instead?) No. I think women like to be the underdog, the dark horse, the long-shot, the brains behind the brawn. Perhaps women just don’t want the credit and prefer the debit.
Did you smell that too? No, not cynicism, but sexism. The point of contention seems to be about the bottom line, or the take home (pay-that is). It is a fact that women have been part of the workforce for at least the last 60 years or so ‘officially’ (and I think that means 'on payroll'). Women have been working since there was work to be done, honestly, and often paid under the table (which according to Dictionary.com originated around the same time women began working (on the books). Coincidence? I welcome any further knowledge about the origin of this expression.
Image By unknown photographer of Alfred Kastler French, physicist, c. 1967[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Now it may take a math (or economics) expert to interpret this further, but the data as of 2014 shows that women earn 79% on average of their male counterparts, this gap of a 21% difference has decreased since 1974, but I still wonder if trust (gap) works like inflation.
Will women earn the same at some projectable date? I think so. In fact, I think it would be worse if women were currently paid more for some stereotypical ‘womanly’ jobs like nursing.
Are there really 'manly jobs' and primarily feminine fortes? Sure, cleaning and empathy for example. Women are experts in empathy. They are really good at feeling bad about themselves and others. Woman have practiced cleaning since we were in the cave-but I think this specialty is scientifically related to genetics or simple survival. Keeping things clean, even animals know this, is insurance against death. There is a balance here. Men get hurt, women heal wounds, without both of our strengths and weaknesses what would either of us do with our lives? Who would we tell? Who would we argue with? Coins would only have one side? Instead of approaching our difference as a better than (you) worse than (you) scenario, perhaps it should be thought of finding balance, the way water seeks its own level. And perhaps our cups are just too full (of ourselves)…
Will women earn the same at some projectable date? I think so. In fact, I think it would be worse if women were currently paid more for some stereotypical ‘womanly’ jobs like nursing.
Are there really 'manly jobs' and primarily feminine fortes? Sure, cleaning and empathy for example. Women are experts in empathy. They are really good at feeling bad about themselves and others. Woman have practiced cleaning since we were in the cave-but I think this specialty is scientifically related to genetics or simple survival. Keeping things clean, even animals know this, is insurance against death. There is a balance here. Men get hurt, women heal wounds, without both of our strengths and weaknesses what would either of us do with our lives? Who would we tell? Who would we argue with? Coins would only have one side? Instead of approaching our difference as a better than (you) worse than (you) scenario, perhaps it should be thought of finding balance, the way water seeks its own level. And perhaps our cups are just too full (of ourselves)…
Image of John Kerr credit Thomas Annan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Delusional Romanticism and Extreme Liberalism aside, here’s the news flash, men and women are different. But our differences are more circumstantial it seems, not just in our own immediate circles but on the grander timeline of humanity recording things; such as how much women get paid less than men and if men are better at math and if you assume the latter is true the former won’t matter since women won’t mind (or figure it out).
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