Whether there is a difference in performance between men and women in the fields of science and mathematics, what is the finding from the data of 1.6 million high school students?

by Chen Feng

STEM, which refers to education fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, still has a stereotype "men are better than women". Do they actually differ depending on gender? , The result of comparing the results of 1.6 million high school students with men and women has been announced.

Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM | Nature Communications
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06292-0

Study of 1.6 million grades shows little gender difference in maths and science at school
https://theconversation.com/study-of-1-6-million-grades-shows-little-gender-difference-in-maths-and-science-at-school-101242

Rose O'Deas and Shinichi Nakagawa of the University of New South Wales and others investigated the results of the mathematics and engineering of 1.6 million students, and it was said that there was little difference in gender between grades. From this, researchers are seeing that there is a difference between women's careers and men's careers in the field of STEM, academic outcomes are not the reason.

According to researchers, the gap between men and women in the field of STEM is according to " Variability hypothesis (variable hypothesis)". The fluctuating hypothesis is that "men are more variable in nature compared to women", and cognitive abilities have often been used in the discussion of "women are less intelligent / higher than men" compared to men.

In the graph below, red is female and blue is male, both peaks are the same in both male and female, but comparing each horizontal line without graph shows that men's chart is wider . This indicates that men are more "people with lower performance" "more people with higher performance" than women, leading to the idea that men are more variable in nature compared to women.

Until now, "genius" and "famous people" tend to be thought of as areas of men. My parents thought that my son had "a genius of genius" over my daughter, and my children did not think that "a much clever girl than a boy." And a few women were hired in the field of mathematics and philosophy, where geniuses are important.

The variation hypothesis was used for the first time to explain the superiority of men in the 1800's. After that in 2005, the fluctuating hypothesis has become remarkable again. Lawrence Summers, an economist who will be the president of Harvard University, said in January 2005, "Why are there many men at the top of the science and engineering field? "

"In the special case of science and engineering, there are problems of essential aptitude, especially suitability variability, such concerns being greater due to factors such as socialization and ongoing discrimination"

This remark, which inherently suggests that male and female abilities differ, was instantly condemned and ultimately an apology article was posted.

Is there really a difference in abilities between men and women? In order to ascertain that, this time, researchers developed a method to test the differences between groups by meta-analysis. Using this method, we tested the variability in academic performance using the data of the research results that have been done so far. The data was used as data at this time from 1931 to 2013 with 268 different high schools and 26 million students who went to class, mostly speaking English speakers mainly in North America .

by Chris Liverani

In each group, it was calculated how difference between gender variability and average score is.

As a result, it is said that the distribution of juveniles 'girls' distribution was similar in STEM. In the non-STEM subjects the most gender gap was in English, the girls had an average 7.8% rating, the variability was 13.8% smaller than the juveniles.

The girls' variability in STEM was 7.6% lower than juveniles, so researchers next confirmed by simulation whether this value explains the lack of women in college entry in the STEM field.

As a result of the simulation, it is said that the number of students who are in the top 10% in the STEM class in the university was equal for men and women. A top 20% score is sufficient to study science at prominent universities and a gender gap of 7.6% is not a direct reason for "few girls going to the STEM field" "Said the researcher.

In other words, Mr. Summers's argument that "gender differences exist in fluctuation of aptitude" is not all wrong. There is a certainty of mutability and this leads to the view that "This outstanding person is a man". However, researchers believe that the beliefs of people that many successful scientists are "ordinary hard-working people" and that other exceptional abilities are necessary, I am talking.

A woman in the STEM field may hit the wall in another part, such as harassment or stereotype, but "There is a small number of women in STEM until there is no wall, as there are few gender differences in variability It should not be taken out as a reason, "the researcher said.

by JESHOOTS.COM