Women in Math and Science (2/1/2005)

Last month, Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, at an academic conference, said that innate differences may cause fewer women than men to succeed in science and math careers. His comments caused a furor. A Harvard faculty committee on recruitment of women professors sent Summers a letter to protest that his remarks reinforce an institutional culture at Harvard that erects numerous barriers to adding more women to the faculty and impedes efforts to recruit top women scholars. Summers said he wanted to provoke debate, and indeed he has.

In fact, all U.S. students" math and science test scores lag behind those of other industrial countries. According to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study of 23 countries, the U.S. ranked 17th in math and 16th in science; even our academically advanced students fared poorly, ranking 15th among 16 countries. And, our students do worse as they age. Between 1986 and 1996, the number of foreign students earning PhDs in science, technology, engineering and math here grew 4 times faster than the number of American students, and in 2000, non-citizens received 43% of physical science PhDs in the U.S. So, should we conclude that innate differences in Americans make our student achievement so low compared to that in other countries? Hardly!

Sex discrimination cruelly undermines young girls" self-confidence and creates hostile environments for women in male-dominated areas. Remember, in 1992, Shannon Faulkner was accepted at the all-male military school, The Citadel, but was quickly rejected when they learned of her gender. She fought and won a 3-year court battle, but faced extreme hostility upon her entry. She was ridiculed for dropping out later, but little was said about the men who drop out. In 1999, Nancy Mace became the first woman to graduate in The Citadel's 156-year history. She, too, endured a hostile environment. Ms. Mace graduated a year early, due to her accelerated academic program; that triggered some negative sentiment among the graduates. She was hissed at during a ceremony to receive class rings. The class speaker referred to the class as "a special group of young men."

Consider how sexual harassment and assaults on women at the Air Force Academy in Colorado have driven many out. Consider our brave military women in Iraq who have been raped by their cohorts. In my own family, my brilliant niece was top of her high school class and won a full scholarship to an elite engineering college with very few women students. My niece was sexually harassed by the male students and sexually assaulted by a professor, causing her to drop out; she attended another college and got a degree in math education.

Biologist Olivia Judson points out in a January 23rd New York Times column, that beliefs that men are intrinsically better at one thing or another have repeatedly led to prejudice and discrimination. Women were thought to not be world-class musicians. But when blind auditions were conducted (that is, the musician plays behind a screen so his or her gender is unknown to the listeners), the number of women offered jobs in professional orchestras increased. Likewise, when grant applications are evaluated but the applicant's gender is unknown, women are more likely to win financing. As you probably know, the double helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (or DNA) was discovered by Rosalind Franklin, not by the three men who got the Nobel prize, and still get credit, for its discovery.

Indeed, we should look at why women are such a minority in math and science. Let's start with eradicating the prejudice and the hostile environment. No country can afford to sacrifice half of its brainpower on the altar of sex discrimination.

- Judith Kohler

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