Found at Gender Across Borders this article deals with the issue of the so-called "math"-gap which seems to prevail at the majority of higher learning institutions all over the globe. The numbers of women achieving highly in college math are far lower than they are for men and the reasons are probably more social than they are biological. The position is that female ability in math is simply inferior and all arguments that attempt to explain the matter noting the patriarchal ways in which the world and history have been structured are ignored.
It seems to me that there are problems with the male attitudes toward women attempting to build careers in science and math related fields. Maintaining a patriarchal attitude, males have a tendency to underestimate the ability, logic and thinking skills of their female counterparts instead of observing them as equals they instead see them as inferior in some way. The reasons for doing this may be far more complex than simply stating the prevailing sexist belief system but this sort of behaviour only seems to fall under this umbrella of gendered discrimination.
For instance, this year I had to deal with the annoyance of a male colleague who pestered me with insinuations that I am sad or that there was something wrong (emotionally) because I often chose to maintain a serious expression when during lecture times. Though there were others in our classes, boys, who spent most of their time quietly pondering to themselves, unsmiling and stern, he did not bother hector any of these individuals with the same meaningless assumptions. I was one of the few female students in the class. Was his choice to bother asking such foolish questions a result of my gender. Does he assume that a woman wearing a serious expression is suffering emotional turmoil rather than going through the motions of thinking about stuff? It could very well be that this person was suffering some sort of depression of their own and may have chosen to project them as a defense mechanism. Women being as unable to control one's own emotions as he probably imagines them are a great target for this projection. Makes sense in the patriarchal mind doesn't it? Then again, the dude was short too so there could also be another round of insecurities as a result of that.
I also had a tutor who seemed to be much more adamant to question the actions of female students in our physics computational tutorial class than the male student's as if to say: "You're female, good chance you may not have a clue what you're doing you need guidance." There have been male students in my vicinity that have joked about race and gender issues and the one thing they all have in common is neither of them occupy positions in society that would accord them any form of discrimination. In other words, they are privileged and male - CLUELESS of the ways in which society discriminates against, punishes and oppresses those that do not act in accordance with their gender-related and racial roles.
It seems to me that there are problems with the male attitudes toward women attempting to build careers in science and math related fields. Maintaining a patriarchal attitude, males have a tendency to underestimate the ability, logic and thinking skills of their female counterparts instead of observing them as equals they instead see them as inferior in some way. The reasons for doing this may be far more complex than simply stating the prevailing sexist belief system but this sort of behaviour only seems to fall under this umbrella of gendered discrimination.
For instance, this year I had to deal with the annoyance of a male colleague who pestered me with insinuations that I am sad or that there was something wrong (emotionally) because I often chose to maintain a serious expression when during lecture times. Though there were others in our classes, boys, who spent most of their time quietly pondering to themselves, unsmiling and stern, he did not bother hector any of these individuals with the same meaningless assumptions. I was one of the few female students in the class. Was his choice to bother asking such foolish questions a result of my gender. Does he assume that a woman wearing a serious expression is suffering emotional turmoil rather than going through the motions of thinking about stuff? It could very well be that this person was suffering some sort of depression of their own and may have chosen to project them as a defense mechanism. Women being as unable to control one's own emotions as he probably imagines them are a great target for this projection. Makes sense in the patriarchal mind doesn't it? Then again, the dude was short too so there could also be another round of insecurities as a result of that.
I also had a tutor who seemed to be much more adamant to question the actions of female students in our physics computational tutorial class than the male student's as if to say: "You're female, good chance you may not have a clue what you're doing you need guidance." There have been male students in my vicinity that have joked about race and gender issues and the one thing they all have in common is neither of them occupy positions in society that would accord them any form of discrimination. In other words, they are privileged and male - CLUELESS of the ways in which society discriminates against, punishes and oppresses those that do not act in accordance with their gender-related and racial roles.
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