Hi, Sorry, I'm not subscribed. Just stumbled over this in the archives. So no proper threading, sorry.
Some weeks ago, when I arrived here in Berkeley I also had the impression that there were very few women... http://groups.sims.berkeley.edu/CDTM/05spring/?p=4 This is somewhat regional IMHO: I have the impression, that in Munich we have much more women in Math. Although many do not study math for a Diploma, but for teaching. The reasons are in my opinion quite similar: children are told their whole life that men are better at technical and science stuff, women better at social things and languages. Although brain scientists often say that this is true to some extend, (mostly language/"emotional" skills vs. being able to focus on a single target for "hunting", I've read about tests where kids were asked to collect dollar bills flying down to them, and boys scored much better, because they did not try to catch multiple at a time) I do not believe it. And I think that math requires very much language skills, and definitely not being stronger built... Also, in my opinion there is a huge difference between math at the university and "calculating" at school. I remember having read, that during the first few days of our live, like 90% of our brain cells die. At the same time, the weigth of the brain does significantly increase, as cells are getting interconnected. (Sorry, I don't have a reference for this number. The book is on the other side of the world probably, and I read it a couple of years ago. also it was not a scientific report, so the numbers may well be wrong) Other evidence is that there are just way to many brain cells as that the DNA information can play much of a role - and many other differences are already attributed to the gene differences. If someone has evidence that certain connections to the brain come in differently in sexes I may revise my opinion of course. Until then I tend to believe that is much more of a cultural thing. My sister (who studies electrical engineering) "learned" in a first term lecture, that the first "Computers" were actually women. I guess it was the army who needed people to calculate trajectories or such, and in the lack of machines to do that, they discovered that women were very well capable of doing these calculations... (yes, sometimes the army is not stupid...) Also, I read that ENIAC was at first programmed by women, and back then apparently it was the same - "everybody" thought that women can't do this as good as men. Pretty open discrimination back then, with no "empirical" evidence possible (hey, computers were new back then) Oh, and for the "womens ratio" in germany being not that bad I have also one comment: maybe because everybody is nowadays being told that you don't need math, and that doing to much computer science will just make you unattractive... So I expect the average mathematical skills in germany to go down... and this definitely is not due to more people taking certain hormones... Oh, and Turing was gay, wasn't he? (yes, no statistical significance) I remember he killed himself because of being discriminated... one of the brightest mathematicians and computer scientists of all time. Actually I guess that many people believe - probably related to the 'less attractive' claim above - that mathematicians are more likely to be/become gay. Yes, what I wrote is bullshit. Probably as much bullshit as this hormones thing... Oh, for these studies, always look at the numbers. The newscientist article mentions a study with 80 people. That maybe ends up with 20 in each group. If you look at your friends, how much variance in their map-reading approaches/skills do you see? But actually I think their study supports my guess: after all, their result is like "if you are on average more interested/exposed in people/socials/language/fashion you are more likely to take one approach, if you are more interested/exposed to cars/machines/driving/building you more likely take a different approach" - well, that is what I assume. I would do an orthogonal study now - not dividing people by their gender or their sexual preference, but by giving them slightly different choices. Maybe not as obvious as the following: a car racing and a pop concert ticket, a book on architecture and on plants, a box or a sphere... you get the idea. cya, Erich -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
