The president of Harvard may have resigned, but his unsupported remarks about women have genetically inferior abilities in math and science are still resonating in society. So ingrained is this notion, that it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tell women that they are not good at math and they won't be. Why this should come as a surprise, is baffling to me. As a famous poem says, "Children learn what they live." The expectations of their parents, friends, teachers and society can determine a child's eventual successes or failures just as much as innate intelligence.
However, since this stereotyping is still so ingrained, it it good to know that there are researchers working to scientifically prove them wrong. I would like to think that my expectation of my own children - both my daughters and my son, helped them all find their career paths - two of my children in the sciences, one in mathematics.
To read more about the current research that is debunking the "math is hard for girls" myth, see:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/10/19/women.math.ap/index.html
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