if you have an x on your card, please stand up

If you have an X on your card, please stand up.

If this room was all physicists, only those with X’s would be women.

If you have a Y on your card, please stand up.

If this was a room full of developmental psychologists, all those with Y’s represents how many of you would be women.

“Girls do not score as highly as boys on math and science exams during late high school because of innate differences between the sexes, not social differences.”

- (Former) Harvard President Lawrence Summers (January 2005)

NO!› Verbal abilities

› Women in universities

› Women earning degrees

Despite being better represented percentage-wise in university enrollment, women rarely pursue

math and science degrees.

If one already understands that women can perform as competently as men at math and science, what makes women prefer these people-oriented professions?

News:http://youtube.com/watch?v=tjn6ZSU_zS0&feature=related

Girls are not inadequate in these fields. Socialization says they shouldn’t be interested, so they aren’t.

When women are reminded that they are inferior in math/science, they perform worse

• How children are slotted into sex-based gender roles from the moment of birth.”

• Rose Petal Cottage: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2dXlAjCU8G4&feature=related

• Tonka: http://www.hasbro.com/tonka/

• Easy Bake Oven:http://youtube.com/watch?v=vK6sKmwqw8s

Girls:  › "Taking care of my home is a dream,

dream, dream.“

Boys: › “They're just built different" › "Feeding their need for speed AND control,"

and "...doing what comes naturally.“

“Biological” differences?

What do you think?

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Argentina Myanmar Lesotho World Overall

51

8575

25

49

1525

75

Scientific Researchers in Other Countries

Men

Women

UNESCO Institute for Statistics

MYANMAR LESOTHO

LESOTHO

MYANMAR

During the Socialist era Eastern European governments supported a positive image of women in these fields.

- 1917, the Soviet Union’s “Emancipation of Women”

-“Communist Family Laws”: state invested money

-Government-Funded Child Care

-Post World War II, the state wanted to be strong

71

53

7266 68

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Bulgaria Croatia Macedonia Romania Serbia and Montenegro

MenWomen

“The scientists from Eastern Europe rejoiced in the fact that ‘there were as many girls as boys.’ In my high school class in Croatia… there were as many girls as boys. Such company [in my classes] did not even make me think that science is not for me.”

-From a UC-Berkeley study

Barriers in American Society:

› Childbirth

› Lack of female mentors

› Uncomfortable environments

• “The American South, where I grew up, is very conservative and religious and that culture’s idea of a good role for women is restricted to ‘Good Wife and Mother.”

• More women (32%) than men (4%) had taken career breaks to have children

Women make up half of the population, and at least half of the consumer base in the US

Creating products that aren’t designed with both male and female minds don’t cater to the whole population › Example:

Airbags

Diverse ideas and minds create better products, and for the U.S. to stay competitive, we need as many capable people working in science, specifically IT, to stay up to par.

U.S. Department of Labor -- huge rise in the number of IT jobs

Negative stereotypes are keeping women away.

The female labor force increasing faster than males

Organizations and Awards

Role models Take a lesson from other countries Lifelong Encouragement Confronting Stereotypes Helping girls’ abilities catch up

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