Even notice how stupid the "men better at math" stereotypes are?

submitted by spinningIntelligence from self.GenderCritical

I've been thinking about it recently that 'math is a man's thing' is such a contradiction with what women are expected to do. Women are bad at math, but are somehow also better at cooking, baking, sewing, shopping, and managing a household? What?

And men supposedly are socially ignorant (which is why women have to take care of them), but are also better leaders? Again, what?

It reminds me of that essay "If Men Could Menstruate by Gloria Steinem, and how twisty the mind will become if one tries to justify these stereotypes.

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[–]lefterfield 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Absolutely, that's how male dominance works. In countries where creativity is more highly valued, math is seen as "women's work". It used to be programming was seen as similar to secretarial work, and thus for women. But once a task gains prestige or value, it is seen as the province of men. If teaching elementary children was paid well or held in esteem by society, most elementary teachers would be men.

[–]MarkTwainiac 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, computer coding/programming was once largely done by and left to women. It was a woman - Ada Lovelace, the only child fathered within a marriage by famed poet Lord Byron and thus considered his "legitimate" offspring - who first saw the vast potential of machine computing and came up with the first algorithm for such use in the first place.

In the 20th century, female mathematicians, computer scientists and tech inventors played central or pivotal roles in devising the ideas behind, and doing the math calculations necessary for, the communications and computer technology we take for granted today, such as wifi and GPS. The terms "computer bug" and "debug" were neologisms supposedly invented in the 1940s by a female computer scientist in the US, Grace Hopper. (However, the term "bug" to mean a malfunction in a mechanical device or system originated in the 1800s.)

I highly recommend following "Great Women of Mathematics" on Twitter. https://twitter.com/gwomaths?lang=en

[–]jjdub7Gay Male Guest Commentator 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think its more that women aren't implicitly encouraged to pursue these fields. I degreed in aerospace engineering, and we had 30 men and 3 women in my year - all 3 of those women absolutely knew their shit.

[–]eddyelric 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Honestly, mathematics or at least arithmetic is a series of skills one can learn and improve. By placing into gender stereotypes, you create explicit and implicit rules for how men and women are to approach knowledge.

[–]spinningIntelligence[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Indeed. I think we place arbitrary limits on what people can do with these stereotypes. I was just pointing out that the stereotypes don't even make internal sense, let alone when contrasted with the real world.