Girls and Mathematics – 5.02am Sunday 13th July 2025

Girls and Mathematics – 5.02am Sunday 13th July 2025

A week or so ago there was another article querying the lack of girls/ women in the field of mathematics.

I have some thoughts on the matter.

Girls are capable of math, but I believe there are a number of varied issues contributing to the imbalance.

I watch a lot of old movies and when you do, you see the changes in people and society, from one decade to the next.

A day or so ago I watched an old movie from the 1930’s and this young girl was a carnival dancer. And as such, she and her co-dancers were considered to be of no worth. Not fit for marriage or such. It actually sent a terrible message in the end because a well to do young man fell in love with the girl and his parents were so concerned for their sons future, that it was better for all concerned, including the girl, that she not live. And included in the story was the man who ‘controlled’ the carnival dancers and took their money as his ‘share’.

Society just accepted this type of arrangement. That is, there weren’t male carnival dancers with a woman controlling them and taking their money.

So there is an example of ‘conditioning’. The rules are different. And even when those rules change, the conditioning still exists.

Men also receive conditioning but of a different kind.

If you’re a little girl, you’ll get a doll whether you want one or not. At the same time, you are being told that this is what you are supposed to like. And generally, as far as I know little girls do take to dolls. And generally parents don’t like their little girl getting her pretty dress dirty for example and eventually, the little girl doesn’t want to get her pretty dress dirty.

So boys are encouraged to be and have different interests and activities. Girls will use imaginative activities with their dolls and boys will make dirt tracks for their toy cars etc.

So these paths accentuate different skills.

A boy will sit for hours and construct a model plane and a girl will put makeup on her doll or herself.

Other things I notice in the old movies, there are all these rules for women that don’t apply to men. And might I add vice versa.

But always, there is the theme that the woman’s future is totally dependent on having a husband. And for a time, a woman could not inherit anything, while a man could. Which is of course very unfair, but men made that rule. And women didn’t know what to do about it because of ‘conditioning’.

That ‘conditioning’ made women sort of, dumb, and consequently men saw women as kind of ‘dumb’ little realizing that men had done this, without meaning to, but that’s the result of conditioning children into adulthood that this is how it is and a girl needs only to be pretty and she’ll have a man to make her happy. That’s simplistic but generally that’s been the theme for a long time.

Those rules might change overnight, but the conditioning, as I said, lingers on.

So in the field of astronomy for example, you see a number of talented women in the past and men took the credit for their work. And as bright as those women were, they couldn’t or were too afraid to do anything about it.

This of course puts men in a very ugly light, but those men stealing from those women actually believed it was how things were. And apparently, there are still men who think along that path, because there are men who have stolen some of my work from me, privelidged men at that.  The difference being that they know it’s criminal and they know they are breaking the law. And there are women who are aware of this theft of my work and are silent. Sort of like being ‘one of the boys’ mentality. Which of course is ‘dumb’ because it doesn’t make those women one of the boys at all or earn them any respect.

But anyway, back to the mathematics, contributing factors are ‘conditioning’ and possibly some women think they aren’t welcome in the field. Some never developed an interest because they weren’t encouraged. Some probably find math boring. Some might think that men will find them boring if they were interested in math and I think too that girls/women having not been encouraged to participate in a particular field through generations, it then takes a long time to undo that.

Women were probably made to believe they couldn’t do math and if you believe you can’t do something, you tend not to try. Of course women can physically do math, but women have become quick reward/gratification based, materialistic etcetera, many focussed on their exterior than their interior. So men still dominate the field of math. It’s actually quite sad that women are behind, but the men of today didn’t do that so shouldn’t be blamed. But I think once we understand the failings of one group keeping another group down is cruel and breeds a form of contempt in some, and that contempt can affect both sides because one looks down on the other for being ‘dumb’ and the other resents the bully.

Girls and boys, men and women seem a bit lost these days on how and who to be. Getting along well and being caring of each other can solve many problems.

Fiona MacLeod (C)