[Maths-Education] The STEM Profession that Women Dominate

[Ernest, Paul]

Dear colleagues

Further to my remarks about the problem of female underparticipation in mathematics post-16 I received a very interesting correction from Walter Whiteley of York University, Toronto, Canada

He points out the dramatic difference in participation between women in Math (usually meaning pure math) and women in statistics, where it seems more than half the graduate students and (at our institution) half the faculty are women. 

He drew my attention to the link to a web site giving some of the related evidence.

http://smartdatacollective.com/metabrown/49293/stem-profession-women-dominate

I include an excerpt from his email because I think it is both interesting and important 

> Paul
>        Thanks for the reflections. 
> Whenever I have an undergrad student (or a Math Ed researcher) talk about differences post high school, I point out the dramatic difference in participation between women in Math (usually meaning pure math) and women in statistics, where it seems more than half the graduate students and (at our institution) half the faculty are women. 
>        The split in Applied Math is also changing as applied math shifts from Physics and Engineering (low in participation in Women) to mathematical biology, disease modelling, etc. which are higher in participation of women.  
>        I think there are good reasons - and one of them is the choice based on whether pursuing this study will make a difference in the larger world.  I connect this back to ideas noted in Gilligan's In a Different Voice - and some studies tracking women students' choices back to early years in schooling and values learned from their mothers. 

> Walter Whiteley
> Professor of Mathematics and Statistics
> Member of the Graduate Programs in Mathematics, in Education, and in Interdisciplinary Studies
> York University, Toronto, Canada
> Email: whiteley @ mathstat.yorku.ca

Best wishes

Paul

_________
Paul Ernest
Emeritus Professor, Education, Exeter University, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK
Homepage http://www.people.ex.ac.uk/PErnest/ Philosophy of Maths Ed Journal
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paul-Ernest/e/B001K8D5B2
 Latest (joint) paper "Explorations in knowing: thinking psychosocially about legitimacy" available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681366.2013.877205.