“First, as early as second grade, the children demonstrated the American cultural stereotype that math is for boys . . . . Second, elementary school boys identified with math more strongly than did girls on both implicit and self-report measures. The findings suggest that the math–gender stereotype is acquired early and influences emerging math self-concepts . . . .”
So begins Math-gender Stereotypes in Elementary School Children, a landmark study published in 2011 by a trio of University of Washington researchers. Their findings confirm and put a stamp of academic authority on something that parents and teachers have known for quite a while: At some point early in life, students come to a fork in the education highway, and the tine marked “To Math” is for most girls the road less traveled.
(Not that every Washington boy is a budding Einstein. While Washington ranks near the top in the nation in engineering and scientific jobs, we’re near the bottom in terms of filling those jobs with homegrown talent of either gender.)
It’s an accepted fact that Washington’s economic future, along with that of the nation as a whole, is going to be far more dependent on brains than on brawn. And if we’re failing to produce enough STEM graduates to meet current requirements, it makes no sense to write off half of our youngsters because of an “American cultural stereotype.”
That’s the thinking behind UW Computer Science & Engineering Summer Camp for Girls: to defy stereotypes and immerse middle- and high-school girls in computer programming, one of the most male-dominated fields this side of the NFL. The girls’ camps boasted full enrollment last summer, and details on the 2014 sessions will be released next March.
Ironically, and sadly, efforts in Washington and other states to increase the ranks of STEM graduates, and to break down the barriers that discourage many girls and young women from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math, are butting up against a political roadblock. The Republican-created sequester in the other Washington has cut billions of dollars in federal research funds in those very fields.
Oh, and getting back to the study referred to earlier? Tucked away near the end is a fact that should be instructive if there are any people left who think that girls really are innately inferior to boys in their ability to master math: In Singapore, middle- and high-school girls outscore their male counterparts in standardized math assessments.