Data Shows Girls Around The World Underestimate Themselves In Math

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has gathered data comparing countries all over the world on their track record of gender differences in various skills, degrees, work, and wages. It's an interesting cross section of opportunity, gender imbalance, and culture. The OECD even took into… » 3/09/14 12:30pm Sunday 12:30pm

How to Be Good at Math as a Woman: Pretend You're Someone Else

Do you know how, in the education system, everyone is always saying that women are terrible at math and then if you make a math mistake when you're called up to the board everyone's like, "THAT'S IT; GET YOUR UTERUS OUT OF HERE; SWING THOSE CHILD-BEARING HIPS OFF TO A HUMANITIES LESSON." No? Well, ok, it happens all the… » 7/04/13 12:30pm 7/04/13 12:30pm

All the Characters on Friends Were Suicidal Caffeine Junkies, FYI

It may seem pointless to discuss the coffee-drinking habits of television characters that faded away in 2004, but the Internet is a repository of pointless stuff, and, anyway, you’ve probably always wanted to know if Chandler’s caffeine consumption was physically dangerous. Didn’t it seem like everyone on Friends drank … » 4/29/13 10:30pm 4/29/13 10:30pm

Sara Volz, Teenage Scientist of Tomorrow, Turned Her Room into a Lab

In the not-so-distant future, when humanities majors (the unskilled laborers of academia) become so commonplace that they make Falstaff’s birthday a national holiday on which people are only allowed to talk to each other in heroic couplets, anyone who studied a hard science (i.e. not sociology) will be treated like a… » 4/28/13 12:30pm 4/28/13 12:30pm

‘Grandma Got STEM’ Challenges the Stereotype of Technologically…

Denigrating grandmothers for their supposed lack of technological prowess is bullshit because a) big fucking deal you can use a computer — your grandmother was probably old enough during the moon landing to roll her eyes when Neil Armstrong read his cheesy "one small step" line, and b) grandmothers are really crafty, so… » 3/24/13 2:30pm 3/24/13 2:30pm

Science to Women: Try Literature Instead

Could these AP exam prep books from the Princeton Review be any more obvious? English and history are for ladies, and math and science are for boys. Since many text books now overcompensate with science covers that feature ladies (please see: every stock photo of a girl looking into a microscope ever — honestly, it… » 3/11/13 9:30am 3/11/13 9:30am

Senator Ron Johnson Sure Hopes Tammy Baldwin Can Understand Math

Senator-elect Tammy Baldwin was among the most progressive members of the US House of Representatives during her tenure as a Wisconsin Congresswoman. Wisconsin's senior Senator Ron Johnson is a Tea Party idiot. But so far, everything is hunky dory! Baldwin is confident that the two can work together in Washington, and… » 11/08/12 6:30pm 11/08/12 6:30pm

Science Cheerleaders Invite Children to Admire Their Perky, Bouncy…

One of the challenges in convincing little girls to want to be smart is that they've been indoctrinated by society and princess culture into thinking that being smart is a thing that ugly mustachioed chicks do because no one wanted to marry them and they're too allergic to hoard cats. Enter the Science Cheerleaders —… » 7/13/12 3:30pm 7/13/12 3:30pm

Girls More Likely to Freak Out When Faced with a Math Problem, Says…

If the phrase "word problem" still provokes vivid night terrors of you sitting in a dystopian future classroom as uniformed classmates jeer at you for not being able to figure out how long it will take some imaginary fucking train to get to some imaginary fucking destination quickly enough for your totalitarian eighth… » 7/09/12 10:00am 7/09/12 10:00am

For a Super-Smart Baby, Leave It in Your Uterus Forever

As medical technology has gotten amazingly advanced, and we've gained more and more control over how and when babies are born, we tend to think that as long as you're not extremely premature, it doesn't really matter exactly how long a baby cooks in its mother's womb. Well, think again. Two new studies have found that… » 7/03/12 1:00pm 7/03/12 1:00pm

Game Theory Might Solve Your Marital Problems! (Whatever Game Theory…

Normally I hate articles and books about how "Men do this, women do this, relationships are like this, and unless you're like this you're going to wind up like THIS," because typically they are boring, disingenuous, never effective, dehumanizing, cash-grabby, and dumb. But though obviously all relationships are different … » 6/13/12 4:00pm 6/13/12 4:00pm

Regardless of Performance, Teachers Assume Girls Are Worse at Math

Exhibit number one billion in the case of Stupid People v. Yes, Sexism Is Still a Thing: turns out, no matter how good girls are at math, teachers still might be biased against them in the classroom. Data from a national 2002 study indicates that a small but significant percentage of teachers believe that math is just… » 4/11/12 2:50pm 4/11/12 2:50pm

Moms Don’t Frazzle Their Daughters with Fancy Math-Speak

It turns out there's a perfectly reasonable explanation behind the glaring under-representation of women in science- and math-related fields and, despite what Larry Summers would have you believe, it has absolutely nothing to do with aptitude — it's all about conditioning, specifically, the manner and frequency with… » 2/26/12 5:00pm 2/26/12 5:00pm