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Aine Seitz McCarthy
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On female math professors

6/27/2011

3 Comments

 
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Carrell, Page and West find thought-provoking results studying the impact of female professors for first-year college students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields:

Our results suggest that while professor gender has little impact on male students, it has a powerful effect on female students' performance in math and science classes, their likelihood of taking future math and science courses, and their likelihood of graduating with a STEM degree...  Indeed, the gender gap in course grades and STEM majors is eradicated when high performing female students' introductory math and science classes are taught by female professors.

Here's the working paper.

When we presented this paper and a few others in a study on same-gender effects, it was hard to keep the discussion on research and methodology without throwing in a little anecdotal evidence.  The truth is, I am a math major and I adored my first math professor in college. And at the time, she was the sole woman in the department. It's pretty easy to use the role model argument here, but as Carrell et all discuss, it could just as easily be that women who choose to teach STEM courses in college have certain shared positive characteristics (dynamic, comprehensible, inspiring). 

I'd say my Calc 122 professor had all of them (and I might have chosen my major for strange reasons, like getting back at Barbie) but its just as likely that I pursued math because I admired someone who looked a little more like me.

3 Comments
keta mccarthy link
6/27/2011 01:45:56 pm

And the female math professor was at Colby? Sounds like a positive mentorship/ role model which worked.. a good thing.

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Anne
6/30/2011 01:13:06 am

Come to think of it, I've never once had a female math teacher, or science teacher for that matter, maybe that's what led me down the unprofitable path of creative writing? Well, at least now I'll have something to blame when I get questioned for my career choice.

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Travis J.
6/30/2011 01:30:04 am

Isn't it possible that reading into gender "discrepancies" only exacerbates them--or worse, creates a tension and divide that weren't there to begin with?

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    Aine Seitz McCarthy

    International development, economics and some pretty ambitious ideas from a stubborn graduate student clinging to her sense of adventure.


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