jamcmullan@watmath.UUCP (Judy McMullan) (05/17/84)
>I would consider a proof that on the average men are better at math than >women to be dangerous knowledge because of the way it might be applied. >The statement "on the average men are better at math than women" can be >all to easily perverted to, Susan is female, females are no good at math, >therefore Susan is no good at math, therefore she should not be helped >or encouraged. This is the immature attitude referred to in the original >article. Wake up to the real world! The scenario you have described is exactly how things are now!! Lisa described it all too well. >I hope that social preasures are the only cause of the observed differences. >If this is so we have the opportunity to dramatically increase the number >of top flight mathematicians. That opportunity already exists! People should just stop telling the top mathemetician in the class to become a high school teacher and the second in line to become an engineer!! *I* don't want to burn my fingers cooking dinner for some dingbat who can't balance his chequebook just because I am female. I feel my talents are too good to be wasted and I sure didn't get this attitude because I was encouraged to go on in math!! It was just too obviously in love with math to do anything else! My father & his "but you'll just be getting married" were ignored. I have got to give a lot of credit to the feminist movement for helping me ignore a lot of messages from the media and people in my daily life that tried to hold me back. I would be a very unhappy housewife, today, if a lot of women, through the years, hadn't fought for a lot of big & little steps toward bettering the lives of women. The problem is not whether one group is better at math than another. The problem is, just as Lisa showed, that no matter how good any individual girl is at math, she is discouraged from studying it. Too many fine abilities are lost this way. --from the sssstickkky keyboard of JAM ...!{allegra|ihnp4|clyde|decvax}!watmath!jamcmullan
tims@mako.UUCP (05/20/84)
Obviously, one sex is, on the average, better skilled for mathematics. That is, if you could average out the women and men and compare the two results, one would almost certainly differ from the other with regard to math ability. Big deal. The difference is so small that it is completely negligible compared to differences among individuals. If everyone would just keep that in mind, we wouldn't have muddle through this whole discussion.