I’m not sure exactly what you mean by math geniuses—do you just mean e.g. high-performing university level math students, or math professors doing groundbreaking research?
I’m also not sure if the argument you’re making is biological. I believe that, while there may be biological differences in the average mathematical aptitude between genders, the biological effects are negligible compared to the social aspects.
First of all, stereotype threat.
Stereotype threat is the phenomenon that being reminded of a negative stereotype will inhibit your performance because part of your working memory becomes preoccupied with trying to reject the stereotype. This research is fairly well-established, and interventions performed by one of the researchers, Spencer, have indicated that the gender discrepancy in mathematical performance among first-year engineering students can be basically eliminated by following through on this theory.
I actually took a Psych course from Spencer and had several conversations on the subject with him, so that’s how I know about the interventions, which were done at University of Waterloo. There appears to be a lot of Googleable stuff on it though: Google results for spencer engineering stereotype threat intervention
So, stereotype threat accounts for low-performing students. What about professors? Well, there are tons of factors:
Stereotypes & teacher/parent expectations cause fewer girls to care about math & science at young ages.
These same factors cause fewer high school girls to apply to STEM (Science, Technology, Math & Engineering) degree programs.
Stereotype threat causes fewer undergraduate women to perform highly in STEM, thereby reducing the odds that they make it to grad school.
Due to points 1-3, the gender ratios in STEM graduate programs are hugely slanted. I don’t know about research on the effects of this, but Spencer commented at one point that he’s heard of men leaving the English departments of universities because they didn’t feel comfortable there, being the only man. Similarly, women often find it unpleasant to be working in a predominantly male environment.
In addition to the mere ratio being detrimental, there’s also this factor:
People treat male and female professors differently. This bias, again, will affect their perceived intelligence and performance, and therefore factors like funding, etc. See this article from a transgender professor who was treated profoundly differently before and after his sex change: Transgender Experience led Stanford Scientist to Critique Gender Difference
“Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but his work is much better than his sister’s work.”
and
In his commentary Barres points to data from a range of studies showing bias in science.
So sure, there are more male mathematical geniuses than female. And maybe there’s a biological difference that causes men to be more mathematical. But no significant innate difference has been found, and there is plenty of harm being done by assuming that it’s there, or even drawing attention to it, in most situations.
I’m not sure exactly what you mean by math geniuses—do you just mean e.g. high-performing university level math students, or math professors doing groundbreaking research? I’m also not sure if the argument you’re making is biological. I believe that, while there may be biological differences in the average mathematical aptitude between genders, the biological effects are negligible compared to the social aspects.
First of all, stereotype threat. Stereotype threat is the phenomenon that being reminded of a negative stereotype will inhibit your performance because part of your working memory becomes preoccupied with trying to reject the stereotype. This research is fairly well-established, and interventions performed by one of the researchers, Spencer, have indicated that the gender discrepancy in mathematical performance among first-year engineering students can be basically eliminated by following through on this theory. I actually took a Psych course from Spencer and had several conversations on the subject with him, so that’s how I know about the interventions, which were done at University of Waterloo. There appears to be a lot of Googleable stuff on it though: Google results for spencer engineering stereotype threat intervention
So, stereotype threat accounts for low-performing students. What about professors? Well, there are tons of factors:
Stereotypes & teacher/parent expectations cause fewer girls to care about math & science at young ages.
These same factors cause fewer high school girls to apply to STEM (Science, Technology, Math & Engineering) degree programs.
Stereotype threat causes fewer undergraduate women to perform highly in STEM, thereby reducing the odds that they make it to grad school.
Due to points 1-3, the gender ratios in STEM graduate programs are hugely slanted. I don’t know about research on the effects of this, but Spencer commented at one point that he’s heard of men leaving the English departments of universities because they didn’t feel comfortable there, being the only man. Similarly, women often find it unpleasant to be working in a predominantly male environment.
In addition to the mere ratio being detrimental, there’s also this factor: People treat male and female professors differently. This bias, again, will affect their perceived intelligence and performance, and therefore factors like funding, etc. See this article from a transgender professor who was treated profoundly differently before and after his sex change: Transgender Experience led Stanford Scientist to Critique Gender Difference
and
So sure, there are more male mathematical geniuses than female. And maybe there’s a biological difference that causes men to be more mathematical. But no significant innate difference has been found, and there is plenty of harm being done by assuming that it’s there, or even drawing attention to it, in most situations.