“There is an interesting parallel between the decline in girls’ involvement in maths between seven and sixteen years of age, and the gradual disappearance of girls from math books over the same period.”
(Northam, 1986, p. 116)
Northam, J. (1986). Chapter 8: Girls and Boys in Primary Maths Books. In Leone Burton (Ed.), Girls into Maths Can Go (pp. 110 – 121). Great Britain: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Northam's (1986) research is the basis for my MRP. This quote from her chapter, Girls and Boys in Primary Math Books, helps frame the importance of my research.
- Why are females not represented in math books as much as males?
- Why are women less likely to get involved in mathematics compared to men?
Any thoughts?
2 comments:
This is a very interesting phenomanon amoung females and math or even science. My only guess would be that it stems from the history of male and female roles dating back decades. Women would be domestic, and only be educated in basic knowledge and etiquette and males would get to learn about math, science, history and politics. Math was never a "woman's sphere" and unfortunatly that negative stigma is still apparent in today's society. There just isnt enough female role models in the math field for students to be inspired by and look up to. I think this is one way we can appraoch this problem and imrpove it.
Just a thought...
Alicja
Alicja,
I really like how you highlighted, "There just isnt enough female role models in the math field for students to be inspired by and look up to". I think this is very true.
A study by Colgan (2006) higlights what she found in her study. Students viewed mathematicians as, “…fat…aren’t seeing anyone, and have wrinkles on their forehead from thinking so hard…bald, overweight, unmarried men who wear beards and glasses and lead little or no social life”(p. 8).
~Melissa
Reference:
Colgan, L. (Sept. 2006). Hey, It’s Elementary! Seeing Ourselves as Children See Us.
Ontario Mathematics Gazette, 45 (1), 7-9.
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