Women Vs. Men: Differences In Rates of High Achievement
American history is filled with struggles for equality. Some of the most important Americans gained their fame during these struggles- Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony, and Rosa Parks. Such American heroes risked, and often gave their lives for the equality that was rightfully theirs. Generations of children have been, and will be told the stories of the "freedom fighters" that our history has been fortunate enough to have. Susan B. Anthony's gifts to the world were aptly summarized in the words of her niece: "Because of Aunt Susan's love for women and perseverance in her cause, I have today the enjoyment of a great many more rights and privileges than my mother had twenty-five years ago. And seventy years ago-when Aunt Susan herself was young, there were no such things as woman's rights; all the rights were masculine. Woman was ruled by a government and a law in which she had no voice. ...None of the colleges or universities admitted women students. Man endeavored in every way possible to destroy woman's confidence in her powers, to lessen her self-respect and to make her willing to lead a dependent, subservient life." (Anthony, p. 1)Lucy Anthony acknowledged the importance of women's inability to attend college
The differences in career choice exist mainly in regards to mathematics- and science-related careers and greatly affect students' lives. She [Rossi-Becker (1994)] concluded that teachers and instruction could make a differences in students' career choices. It is unspecified, however whether this participation and attention stems from positive contributions to the class or general outbursts. The primary reason cited for this difference is the poor performance of females on the math and science section of the SAT's:"Test scores for males students were significantly higher than for female students in both groups. The differences in treatment come from both parents and teachers and greatly affect students' attitudes. There exists a gap in the treatment, the attitudes, and the career paths between cognitively advanced males and females. The widespread use of role models can be helpful since "women who majored in 'masculine' fields such as math and engineering were more likely to report having a female role model in their chosen field" (Lorenzana, p. Males and females, even having gone through equal school systems, will often diverge in terms of career paths. Females, as Reis and Park stated, seem to take their lower test scores to heart and reflect their frustration in their career choice, generally one away from the scientific community. Teachers' behavior and ideas are often skewed toward one gender:"Teachers selected ability as the cause of their most capable males' success 58% of the time, and the cause of their best females' success only 33% of the time. Again, standardized test scores are not the sole factor for the disparity in the career paths of males and females; parental expectations play an important role as well:"For males, parental expectations for scientific and technical careers for their sons are the motivating forces while, for females, their own education aspirations provided the drive to enroll. " (Reis & Park, 2001)Perhaps, by educating female math teachers about the incongruities in the career choices of females and males they can attempt to create a more positive environment, one in which all students, regardless of gender can participate equally and succeed.
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