STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) tend to be dominated by males. It has been a widely accepted consensus that males are better at math than females. However, new studies are showing that the differences aren’t as likely to be biological but rather pressures from society.
A new study out of Carnegie Mellon University showed that at the early ages of development, boys and girls had the same ability when it came to mathematical concepts. This correlated with some earlier research by Jessica Cantlon, who studied how young boys and girls respond to math. However, her previous research focused on behavior and attitudes, whereas her newest research focused on the brain’s response to mathematical problems.
What accounts for the gap in older students then? One theory suggests that as students mature, boys are usually steered towards STEM fields, whereas girls are steered towards other fields, believing that they are not able to complete the work necessary for a STEM field. Along the same line, it is suggested that females tend to go into fields that they believe they can find work; not learning for the sake of learning but for the sake of making a paycheck. With many STEM fields being male – dominated, there may be an unconscious bias against women, making them less confident to pursue a degree in a STEM field.
“Cantlon suspects the answer involves the societal message girls and young women get, and the difficulty of entering a field that includes very few women. ‘You can look at ratios of women and men participating in different activities and you can get the hint,’ she says.”
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