Saturday, March 27, 2010

Women in STEM

From AOL News:
It's been five years since Lawrence Summers, then the president of Harvard, infamously suggested that "innate" differences were to blame for the lack of women in top science positions at universities. But a new report suggests that social factors play a significant role in holding women back in science, technology, engineering and math -- the so-called STEM fields.

The report, which looked at recent research on the topic, found that entrenched stereotypes and biases affect performance in both genders. The authors highlight two main stereotypes: that girls are not as good as boys at math, and that scientific careers are "masculine" in nature. Researchers found that the stereotypes can lower girls' performance in these subjects and also reduce their interest in pursuing science or engineering jobs.

No comments: