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A new survey by a numeracy campaign about basic math skills in British adults has been released, and it reports that one in three women have trouble adding sums mentally, while only 18% of men do. The results of the poll help to underscore the obnoxiousness of the London newspaper the Daily Mail: while the BBC report on the survey attributes the demographic gender split to women's lack of "confidence" in their own quantitative abilities, the Daily Mail takes the opportunity to imply that women are stupid and only need math skills for things like buying shoes. "34 per cent [of women]- said she had trouble adding up prices in her head while out shopping," the paper laments. More »
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A new study published in the January/February 2008 issue of the journal Child Development states that girls have caught up with boys in terms of math courses — and their friends influence them. Girls look to their close friends when making important decisions, the study found, and girls with friends who make good grades took more high-level math than other teens. Ditching the Plastics to hang with the Mathletes, à la Mean Girls, is a scientifically wise choice! [EurekAlert] More »
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Even though the number of women completing doctorates in math and science is nowhere near 50% — and a new report says that the U.S. isn't even in the top 25 world rankings for science, math or reading — a passel of female high school students owned yesterday's math, science and technology Siemens Competition. For the first time in the event's nine year history, young women won both the individual and the group competitions. (Suck on that, Larry Summers!) Isha Jain from Bethlehem, PA (pictured) took home the individual prize of $100,000 in scholarship money for her research on bone growth in Zebra fish, and Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Harinoff from Plainview, NY won for their work on tuberculosis. All three girls attend public school. (Represent!). More »
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Ever since ex-Harvard President Lawrence Summers said that women are not succeeding in math and science careers because of innate biological differences, there have been numerous articles written, some supporting Summers and some trashing him. Though no one has come to a definitive conclusion, everyone agrees that there are too few females pursuing high level math and science careers. An article from the December issue of Scientific American attempts to summarize all the important sociological and statistical studies about women in science and finds that in the bell curve of mathematical ability, most women end up clustered around the middle, while men more often fall on the high and low ends of the ability spectrum, meaning there are more male math geniuses, and more male math morons, then there are women in either category. More »
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