<p>No offense but have we now traded fixation on MIT, for Berkeley? </p>
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<p>I am not sure you can state that the test is biased against women because it relies on speed and memorization. Hereâs an analysis of the differences: <a href=âhttp://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICGENDER.pdfâ>http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICGENDER.pdf</a></p>
<p>Take a look at this excerpt that according to Doreen Kimura in Sex and Cognition</p>
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<p>Fwiw, among my friends, the Physics majors are all girls! And I could not beat my sister on a game of darts. Actually, I am not sure I could beat her at any game! As far as fine motor skills, I learned quickly how to âdelegateâ all homework involving drawing to the little one! 
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<p>Speaking of Berkeley, QM, their history of art department has no African-American faculty either. But no shortage of women. <a href=âhttp://arthistory.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/101069-currentâ>http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/101069-current</a></p>
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<p>Not much of a surprise considering most students who tend to major in Art History at my college when I attended and others were overwhelmingly from higher SES families. </p>
<p>Many parents/families from lower SES families or higher SES families with parents who earned the wealth within a generation without college or majored in more âpracticalâ fields tend to view âimpractical subjectsâ like Art History with much skepticism and be concerned about their childrenâs potential job/career prospects with such a major. </p>
<p>The fact famous scions of wealthy and royal families like Prince William were Art History majors only reinforces this perception among such parents/families. </p>
<p>Not to say there shouldnât be more African-Americans in our math departments, but do note that while the US is 12.6% African-American [Wikipedia], California is only 6.6% African-American (and 13.6% Asian). I suppose faculty come from all over, though.</p>
<p>Re California demographics: It is difficult to tell whether the small number of people with Hispanic surnames among the Berkeley math faculty were educated in the U.S. or internationally.</p>
<p>Sheesh, lf, I donât have time to undertake a full research project on the composition of all of the top math departments. I did look up Harvardâs web site of âpeopleâ in mathematics. There are a large number of women on that page. But when you look more closely, quite a few of them are Department Staff. I havenât gone through the list based on classificatin.</p>
<p>Hispanic is difficult to tell from surnames or photos. Witness the number of kids on CC who ask whether they are counted as Hispanic.</p>
<p>xiggi, I could see the male/female comparisons in the excerpt that you quoted from Sex and Cognition as a snapshot of the current group of people (probably in the U.S.) However, that is very far from saying that those differences would persist if opportunities were truly equal. It is unsurprising to me that men, who tend to spend a lot of time throwing various objects with precision, are better at it than women, on the whole. How many hours do girls usually spend passing football? How about pitching baseballs? </p>
<p>I suspect that people on the whole talk more to little girls than to little boysâjust a hypothesis, but if it is true, why would it be surprising that women had better verbal memories?</p>
<p>I find these sorts of comparisons depressing, because they donât generally discuss changes in the comparisons over timeâperhaps ETS did and it just wasnât excerpted.</p>
<p>The comment that men get higher scores on mathematical reasoning or problem-solving tests is to a very large extent a societal artifact of current educational practices. I have no problem with mathematical reasoning and problem-solvingâI earn a living at it.</p>
<p>This is really another topic that QM is bringing up (about the lack of African-Americans in math departments) but I did find this article interesting. <a href=âHuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPostâ>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost;
<p>One factor that Iâve never seen mentioned but that I have to believe contributes to lack of women in positions of authority, particularly in academia, is the fact that young female scholars are more likely than their male counterparts to be younger than their partners. This means that they are more likely to have to plan their career around that of an already established spouse, rather than the other way around.</p>
<p>Just anecdotally, Iâve seen this with a few couples in which both partners are aspiring academics. Husband is a few years older than the wife, and graduates while she is still a graduate student. He does a job search that includes schools all over the country and they move, with the idea that she can pick up some adjuncting in the area while finishing her dissertation. This works fine for about two years, but then when the time comes for her to search for a job, sheâs restricted by the husbandâs job - even if they value both careers equally, the existing career and established life in wherever theyâve landed is going to take precedence over a less secure job elsewhere. This is especially true since, increasingly, the next step after graduate school is a shorter-term post-doc, and it would be insane for one partner to leave a tenure track job for the other to take a one year fellowship â only if the wife doesnât take the fellowship, that might be it for her academic career. Unless she gets a genuine dream offer right of the bat - or can wrangle a spousal hire â her chances of securing as good a job as the husband are lower. </p>
<p>Then, of course, men are also statistically older at first marriage and the birth of the first child. So, even assuming â and this goes for any field - that men and women were otherwise equally likely to make career sacrifices for family (which is not true), men have a couple more crucial years to build up and advance in a career before they have to start making the hard decisions.</p>
<p>There is another interesting aspect of hiring practices that operates at my university somewhat related to what apprenticeprof has posted. When we hire a woman faculty member, if her spouse is an academic, every effort is made to offer him a faculty spot as well. When we hire a man faculty member, if his spouse is an academic, there is hardly ever any effort to offer her a spot.</p>
<p>I believe the operating theory behind this is, âWell, the man obviously <em>has</em> to have a job.â</p>
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<p>And, based on my own experience, I have no doubt that the distinctions are NOT universal. I know the statistics for standardized tests but find little correlation to such differences in my (smallish) pool of friends. As I said, I grew up with a solid number of girls who were VERY good at most facets of math, and saw the same patterns in college. </p>
<p>I think that the descriptions and stories about girls not being âgood at mathâ are based on small distinctions at the middle of the pack and tend to vanish entirely at the extremes of the range. If I were allowed a speculation based on what I saw, Iâd say that the lower results (when they exist) are due to an overall lack of confidence as opposed to lacking abilities. But heck, we males, have 99 more problems! </p>
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<p>I wonder whether this is more a US issue than a universal one considering the large numbers of women in the natural and technical sciences in foreign countries, including some whose records on Womenâs rights are behind ours. </p>
<p>For instance, one theme Iâve noticed among female STEM majors at undergrad/grad levels Iâve encountered is that the international studentsâŠespecially those from Eastern Europe and East Asia donât have as much of these issues.** </p>
<p>If anything, most feel the math portion of the GRE and the STEM subject tests, including Physics are on the manageable/easy side* and wonder whatâs holding their American counterparts back on those aspects. </p>
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<li>A mix of a much more solid STEM background from K-college along with the fact the home educational systems were set up in such a manner to weed out students who couldnât demonstrate sufficient proficiency to go on the academic track necessary to be allowed to be eligible to take college entrance exams or college prep school leaving exams necessary for college admission like the Matura.<br></li>
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<p>** At least not those who were able to get on the college track from passing academic HS entrance exams/being deemed by teachers/admins to be ready for the college track. I wonder if there are any gender disparities, itâs possibly at who gets deemed ready/pass entrance exams to be allowed onto the academic track versus going onto various vocational tracks or even being expected to leave school and start working after middle school. </p>
<p>QM, what infuences do you think empowered you to pursue physics? Or fretful mom in math, Poeme in her area and others? Some sort of encouragement in anaytical thinking/skills at home or in k-12? Because I do think in our generation, girls were not consistently encouraged or âtrainedâ to take on theoretical tasks. And thatâs not meant to be provocative.</p>
<p>Cobrat caricatured the point a bit, but some careers are not as likely to be undertaken or even sought after by those who are middle to low SES. Being a doctor, lawyer, or engineer is more likely to secure a good salary than going into math. Those who are trying to move up socioeconomically may not consider a math major.</p>
<p>To link the point back to race, the subpopulation of African Americans who might be interested in math as a career might be swayed against pursuing it by the perception that other careers are more lucrative. Perhaps the children of those who became doctors and engineers would be more likely to consider careers as mathematicians or physicists.</p>
<p>Thereâs an old saying: My grandparents worked hard labor so that my parents could go to college and get a white collar job. My parents got a white collar job so I could become a doctor. I became a doctor so you (the child) could study art.</p>
<p>@apprenticeprof : Those are some interesting points. </p>
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<p>The physics GRE is fairly difficult. Itâs not like the college version of the physics SATII.</p>
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<p>Speaking about noticing, You might have enjoyed measuring their physique a lot more than their Physicsâ prowess! Might have cut down on the time devoted on those endless family discussions. </p>
<p>Re lfâs question in #1154. Thank you for asking! I think it was a combination of many, many influences, but here are a few that were key:</p>
<p>1) One grandfather was a mathematician. This really did make a difference, although I think that all of the subsequent good influences would have sufficed.</p>
<p>2) Parents who encouraged me to think I could do anything, and bought me many books, a microscope, and a telescope.</p>
<p>3) Teachers in K-12 who were very supportive of my interests. This included essentially all of my teachers, though for the work that I do now, I would have to say that particularly influential among them were my 6th-grade teacher who lent me books that were well above the level Iâd seen before, my 7th-grade math teacher, my high-school geometry teacher, who later on arranged for me to take calculus at a local college, because my high school did not offer it, my algebra II teacher, all of my science teachersâvery emphaticallyâwho offered me opportunities such as the use of a lab during my study-hall period (something that could never happen now), and especially my high-school physics teacher. Geometry and physics were especially valuable to me, the way they were taught, because they gave me a clear idea of what it felt like when I truly understood things.</p>
<p>4) The era itself: The Cold War was still on, which gave people the idea that encouraging bright and hard-working students to pursue science would be valuable to the security of the country (and I think they were not wrong in that, although my particular work has no national-security implications). The preparation of a polio vaccine by Jonas Salk and the development of an oral vaccine by Sabin lent a heroic aspect to work in science. Most people now forget what a dread disease polio was. Also, womenâs liberation had opened many doors that had been shut before. Not all of them were open yet, to be sure, but if I had been only 5 years older, my opportunities would have been significantly more limited.</p>
<p>5) An academic adviser in college who took a real interest in me and had many hour-long conversations with me. I really owe him a debt of gratitude.</p>
<p>6) Multiple professors who were really good at presenting their subjects, and were personable. Amount of harassment I faced as an undergrad: Absolutely zero.</p>
<p>7) Ph.D. and post-doc advisers who were interested in my work, though it seems to me that my earlier teachers and professors were more formative. I was already pretty much set in my direction by the time I was in the middle of my junior year in college.</p>
<p>8) A great choice of spouse. This is very important!</p>
<p>9) Quite a lot of sheer luck.</p>
<p>Thinking about #1158 brought back several happy memories. Another influence I should cite is the skepticism of my mother, who said in a pleasant way, âOh, thatâs a lot of hooey!â every time I tried to explain special relativity.</p>