disparity
edyong | June 1, 2009History has had no shortage of outstanding female mathematicians, from Hypatia of Alexandria to Ada Lovelace, and yet no woman has ever won the Fields medal - the Nobel prize of the maths world. The fact that men outnumber women in the highest echelons of mathematics (as in science, technology and engineering) has always been controversial, particularly for the persistent notion that this disparity is down to an innate biological advantage.
Now, two professors from the University of Wisconsin - Janet Hyde and Janet Mertz - have reviewed the strong evidence that at least in maths, the gender…
amillikan | December 26, 2008While attempts to explain the disproportionate number of women in math and science have resulted in the conclusion that women are innately inferior to men in these areas, the methodology has often—if not always—been flawed. By analyzing chess players to explain the lack of female grandmasters, one study found the lack is mostly attributable to nonparticipation, not skill. "Increase female representation in this game and you would probably see many more prodigies rising to the fore," wrote ScienceBlogger Ed Yong from Not Exactly Rocket Science.