Sexism in Mathematics?

Waxing_Gibbous (Peter) · #1 13-10-2009, 09:08 AM

I'm the least P.C. bloke I know. Any liberal tendencies I might have, have been with me since childhood. I consider Cultural Studies, Womens Studies, most forms of Psychology and "Inclusionism'', to be a waste of time and money and a dumping ground for the academically challenged.
However: My wife has an Honours degree in Mathematics (something called 'Abelian Algebra') and a Masters in Operations Research. She is so smart that her employers are struggling to to find FIVE people to do her job (IT Project Manager, giant oil company),when she goes.
In hopes of a quieter life, Carron is doing a Dip-Ed at the moment and part of her course was to look through Math's texts and to note what each sex was doing in any pictures or photos. She thought this was nonsense, I thought it was nonsense....but you know, her Prof was right!
Out of 87 images only 51 had women/girls in them. Out of those 51, only 2
showed women performing "non-traditional tasks" (doctor/banker). The others all had women being minding the kids, having coffee, sewing, baking, etc etc.(nothing wrong with that but...).
More alarmingly in 63 ofthe images of men/boys, they were shown to be performing, difficult 'brainy' professional stuff (Astronaut, engineer, scientist, astronomer etc etc.). The others were loggers or heavy eqipment ooperators etc etc.
I find this really quite appalling! Particularly in a subject like Math's where no heavy lifting is required and only the brain matters!
Granted amoung the middle and upper middle class kids in the city, these images would probably go unnoticed or if noticed would be challenged.
Out here in the country, where much is as it always was, as most of the kids are well, not backward, but ill-informed, its much more likely that that any subliminal effect will only re-inforce outworn stereotypes.
My rant for the day!

renormalised (Carl) · #2 13-10-2009, 11:59 AM

Abelian Algebra...that's what it is. Lucky boy to have a lady that smart.

DipEd, quieter...no no...not if you're going to be teaching high school!!!

The reason why not so many girls do math is the same reasons the boys don't...they don't like it and they're not encouraged to do it. In any case, most of the teachers who try to teach it have no enthusiasm for the subject and quite a few shouldn't be teaching it as they're not good enough to do so. Plus, you also have all the cultural stereotypes of "geeky" maths and science people prevalent. You've got that "Beauty and the Geek" show on TV, for instance.

As for maths not being heavy lifting...have you seen some of my astronomy texts...there's that much maths in them sometimes I need a forklift just to move them!!!

Waxing_Gibbous (Peter) · #3 13-10-2009, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by renormalised

Abelian Algebra...that's what it is. Lucky boy to have a lady that smart.

DipEd, quieter...no no...not if you're going to be teaching high school!!!

The reason why not so many girls do math is the same reasons the boys don't...they don't like it and they're not encouraged to do it. In any case, most of the teachers who try to teach it have no enthusiasm for the subject and quite a few shouldn't be teaching it as they're not good enough to do so. Plus, you also have all the cultural stereotypes of "geeky" maths and science people prevalent. You've got that "Beauty and the Geek" show on TV, for instance.

As for maths not being heavy lifting...have you seen some of my astronomy texts...there's that much maths in them sometimes I need a forklift just to move them!!!

I warned her about High School! But she seems to love it and the students seem to like her. She taught them prob. & stats. by running some sort of footy tipping scam! Maths is her first love and while I suffered through it at Uni. she didn't break a sweat until 4th year.
I think a lot of kids get discouraged because they don't know WHY there is Calculus or Algebra or Trig. Very little background is given as to the history of maths. All of a sudden your textbook says: 'If you want to find the volume of a cone'or ...'to solve for'x', they think: "Why the hell would I care? and what's "x", ad lose interest.
As for heavy lifting -Point taken on the textbooks!!!!

marki · #4 13-10-2009, 11:36 PM

There are lots of older experienced folks becoming educators and we really need more good maths teachers, good on her she if she has made the connection with the kids. Many untrained teachers get maths as a subject as they just can't find enough of them and someone has to stand at the front. I certainly would not advocate it as the quiet life though, it's bloody hard work and will easily exhaust most people. I have done 16 hour days of hard physical labour yet was still able to lift a tinnie at the end of the day. Some days I get home from school and just go to sleep. It's kind of addictive when in class. I never sit down and am just as hyper as most the kids, it really is great fun but the marking and preperation can really suck up all of your free time (not so bad in maths though

). In science we tend to be as inclusive as possible. If I write a test and questions require a personallity I use the kids names in the questions. Absolutely impossible feats have been performed by many of my students and it is not unusal to hear kids in fits of laughter when reading questions in my tests

.

Mark

Robh (Rob) · #5 14-10-2009, 11:26 AM

I'm surprised by the textbook picture/photo survey.
The gender issue in maths resurfaces from time to time. In my time as a maths teacher, I taught with many talented female maths teachers. So the female role models are there for the girls. I think schools have made a genuine attempt to remove gender stereotypes from subjects. You now find many boys doing Food Tech and many girls doing Woodwork and Metalwork.
Nothing polarises people like maths. So many people say "I can't do maths." and "I don't like maths". It seems that the way people's brains are hard-wired results in a very large range of maths ability. In most subjects, students can make an attempt at a question based on their own level of competence e.g. an essay on the mechanisms resulting in evolution could be answered simplistically or in much depth according to the student's ability. In maths, it's more black and white; either the student can answer the question or they can't. The fact is, less and less students are now doing maths for the HSC.
The challenge for the high school teacher of maths is to make the subject interesting and relevant, give everyone a chance at success and then still cover a compulsory curriculum. No easy task.

Regards, Rob.

AstralTraveller (David) · #6 14-10-2009, 11:48 AM

I had a great maths teacher at high school up to half way through 4th form (now year 10). The class was performing well above average and we were so far ahead of the curiculum that he could devote one period a week to optional topics (eg topology). Unfortunately for us he won a job as a head teacher at another school and we got a young bloke who couldn't teach a choko vine to climb. In <6 months the class was performing below average and were behind the curiculum. Fortunately we got a decent teacher again in 5th and 6th form.