Through the last 50 years’ women have made remarkable progress in the workplace and through education. Even in many fields like law, business and medicine that were historically dominated by men, women are now rising to the top. However, in areas like Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering(STEM) women gains through education and through the workplace are still slower (Hill, Corbett, and Rose, 2010 p. IX).
The under-representation of women in the fields of STEM is controversial in today’s society, with competing statements of biological and sociocultural connection between women ability’s in the workforce. In this decade and era where women are becoming increasingly …show more content…
(Hill, Corbett and Rose, 2010 p. IX.)
As technology develops the growth of research increase on the topic of gender difference in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and the biology behind the reasoning is creating questions on the topic. A book by Jo Boaler ‘What’s math got to do with it’ explores studies of the brain between different genders. On average, a men’s brain is larger than a women’s, which leads people to believe that therefore men are genetically smarter than women according to science which creates a bias on who’s smarter. However, both men and women have the same average amount of brain cells, resulting in equal intellectual between both genders (Boaler, 2008). Overall there is no overall proof of a biological explanation for an intellectual variation between the genders. The different between the sexes brains is through the functions of the brain. For example, when emotional images are shown to women, their brains access and use nine different section, whereas a man only uses two different sections. Studies like these lead to the assumption that women …show more content…
can greatly impact a child’s achievements through school and life. (Gunderson, Ramirez, Levine, & Beilock, 2011). For instance, Jacob and Eccles (1992) did a study on the effects mothers have on influencing their children in varies subjects including mathematics. The finding showed students’ were highly influenced by their mother’s opinions on the topic. So notable mothers actually influence a children’s learning ability when voicing their opinion on what is to believe as right or wrong, so if a mother has been exposed to a stereotype it will be passed down to create a negative perception to their child through life and education. Even though it is to be believed educators like teachers and professors, whether they be male or female are fair towards every student they teach regardless, of their age, sex, race etc. are still influenced by social stereotypes (Hall & Sandler, 1982). For example, a study shows when educators ask questions to the class, the educators will look towards the male students to answer questions as if expecting the men to know or answer the questions and for the women to not have the abilities to respond or answer accordingly, or even will call on men more often than women to answer the question unconsciously. (Duffy, Warren, & Walsh, 2001; Eccles & Blumenfeld,