Thomas - well, I will, perhaps foolishly, add my 2 cents to this debate.
I went to high school in the early 60s. Our school had 9 national merit semifinalists, 6 were girls. Four students had SAT math boards above 790, myself and 3 girls. So I would question the notion that girls have any predisposition away from math, based on personal experience.
When I went to engineering school, less than 1/2 of a percent of students were women. In our graduating class of about 400, we had 9 women. 7 were in both of the engineering honor societies, and all 9 were in the top 10% of the class.
Admittedly, in the society we had in the early 70s there was probably a pretty rigorous selection process - a woman who actually went to engineering school had probably self-selected based on strong skills and talent in math and science. Still, engineering school is pretty tough - 35% of freshmen dropped out and 30% of sophomores, so by junior year more than half of of the entering class had decided on some other course of study. 10 women entered my freshman class, 9 graduated.
If things have really changed to the point where there is a significant proportion of women in engineering, that would probably be a victory for education programs which encourage women to consider a technical track. |
