Gender Disparities In Schooling, Business

Thanks to Dr. Kavadlo for sending this article my way.

An excerpt: "In a more ambitious experiment organized with the university's math department, the psychologists evaluated how undergraduates performed when they had male or female math professors.
They measured, for instance, how often each student responded to questions posed by professors to the classroom as a whole. At the start of the semester, 11 percent of the female students attempted to answer questions posed to the entire class when the professor was male, and 7 percent of the female students attempted to answer questions posed to the entire class when the professor was female. By the end of the semester, the number of female students who attempted to answer questions posed by a male professor had not changed significantly: Only 7 percent of the women tried to answer such questions. But when classes were taught by a woman, the percentage of female students who attempted to answer questions by the semester's end rose to 46.
The researchers also measured how often students approached professors for help after class. Around 12 percent of the female students approached both male and female professors for help at the start of the semester. The number of female students approaching female professors was 14 percent at the end of the semester. But the number of female students asking for help from a male professor dropped to zero."

Is this choice subconscious? Does our media relay the idea that male teachers are intimidating? I think there's some truth to the latter. However, through crime dramas, I think the paradigm of the all-encompassing white male and his power is knocked down a few notches: girls are subject to watch male teachers engaging in pedophilia. It's interesting how one of the few areas in which men are presented as being out-of-control or not using their power wisely could end up being one of the big reasons girls are subconsciously 'failing' in school or 'not living up to their potential.'

And as far as the two girls mentioned in the beginning of the article (high school students who are developing new cancer treatments and solar cars), this is the first I'd heard of them. They give me immense hope. But I'm extremely discouraged by the aforementioned fact: this is the first I'd heard of them. Usually, kid prodigies who are broadcast are male and doing something math or sciencey. Either that, or the girls shown are developing iPhone apps. That's about as much 'newsworthy' leverage as we're given. Similarly, science shows on television are marketed toward men and boys. Mythbusters, for example, is one of my favorite TV shows, but it doesn't take long to realize there's only one woman on staff (at least in front of the camera, doing the experiments). And she's hyped a lot for her sex appeal (beauty and brains! - like this is something foreign). I am slightly placated by the fact that said woman (Kari Byron) is developing a television show of which the purpose is to help excite girls about science (or so she's been quoted).