What is your opinion about women in mathematics? Are they better than men?

Question

I am conducting a web research to get opinion of people from various walks of life. Do women have more logical abilities?

Answer 1

Having taught high school mathematics, I can tell you that a higher percentage of good math students are girls at the high school level. But when it comes time to choosing a college major, the girls avoid math related subjects mostly because math requires a lot of isolated work.

Girls by nature are more social creatures than guys and tend to be turned off by isolation. This explains why very few girls are in advanced college math even though girls have the aptitude for math. Think about it--would most girls want to do math homework with a bunch of geeks or study business doing group projects with the jocks and frat boys? Get the idea?

TV star Danica McKellar, who has a graduate degree in math from UCLA, explains why she prefers the glamour of being a tv star instead of being a research mathematician at her website below. She still likes to solve math problems at her site showing that even good looking babes can do math.

Answer 2

No, in my advanced math class, there are 20 guys to 1 girl.

I don't think one is better than the other where reasoning is concerned. It is a skill you hone like any other. I do think that women multitask much better than men though.

It is ones ability to understand and comprehend that is important in Maths not ones gender. Get a grip and don't be sexist.

I don't know if men are better than men at mathematics, but in my profession, there are 10 times more men than women who hold professional licenses. There are probably more women who are math teachers than men.

i think men do better in maths.

women are better off than men only they dont believe it so men end up being good performers...

The women I know and who do math are very good, sorry, excellent.

Right from the start, boys/men tend to do better in logic oriented subjects (i.e. math). Women on the other hand tend to do better in communication subjects (i.e. Grammar, Spelling, Literature, History). This has to do with the way our minds are wired and not cultural/environmental influences. They have shown this time and time again through various studies done on young children. You can also see that the areas then men excel in are usually the areas women aren't as good at. This has nothing to do with sexism, just an all around fact of life. Women usually are better at nurturing and communication (hence great teachers, nurses, etc.) Women tend to think more emotionally (notice the word tend, not are, since there are men who do think emotionally and women who are very logical) and men tend to be much more logic minded.

Answer 3

Right from the start, boys/men tend to do better in logic oriented subjects (i.e. math). Women on the other hand tend to do better in communication subjects (i.e. Grammar, Spelling, Literature, History). This has to do with the way our minds are wired and not cultural/environmental influences. They have shown this time and time again through various studies done on young children. You can also see that the areas then men excel in are usually the areas women aren't as good at. This has nothing to do with sexism, just an all around fact of life. Women usually are better at nurturing and communication (hence great teachers, nurses, etc.) Women tend to think more emotionally (notice the word tend, not are, since there are men who do think emotionally and women who are very logical) and men tend to be much more logic minded.

Here is a great real life experiment going on. A school has separated the sexes into different classes to feed into the strengths of boys and girls.
http://www.ecmpostreview.com/2005/november/9gender.html

Answer 4

Part of your study likely should include the corpus callosum, a large bundle of nerves that connects the right and left hemispheres of the human brain. Men have a smaller corpus callosum than women (it shrinks in the fetus due to testosterone) and therefore have less communication between the logical and emotional sides of their brain than women. This was likely an advantage for women in raising children because they can be logical and emotional together. Likely men have an advantage in math and logic because they can decide to operate in only one side at a time (and are not distracted by emotion). Men can decide whether to react with rage or logic when disturbed but only one side dominates at a time. That said many women are great mathematicians. Perhaps others could be but prefer activities with far more emotional content (such as writing a love novel?).

Answer 5

Theoretically, since the brains of men and women are organized differently, we might think that they would have different strengths and weaknesses. You might consult Wikipedia for their overview of the gender issues of intelligence, including mathematical skill; I've attached the link below.

Realistically, I don't think there's any doubt that women (at least in the US, but probably in much of Europe as well) are socially programmed to defer to men in mathematical thinking -- even Barbie has been programmed to say "Math is hard!" I doubt we'll really know the truth about gender issues and mathematical intelligence until we can break through the gender stereotyping.

Answer 6

I don't know if men are better than men at mathematics, but in my profession, there are 10 times more men than women who hold professional licenses. There are probably more women who are math teachers than men.

Answer 7

It is ones ability to understand and comprehend that is important in Maths not ones gender. Get a grip and don't be sexist.

Answer 8

No, in my advanced math class, there are 20 guys to 1 girl.

Answer 9

I don't think one is better than the other where reasoning is concerned. It is a skill you hone like any other. I do think that women multitask much better than men though.

Answer 10

This is in response to your graduate maths question because your email is not confirmed and I cannot reply to it.

I placed three semi-relevant articles by Turner on my website: http://neoni.anu.googlepages.com/

They are PDF files and two are fairly large. Right-click then "Save as" will allow you to save them on to your computer and will likely prevent your browser from freezing. Let me know if it helps!