Blog on Women in the Business World
A recent article in the New York Times Sunday Business section described the dearth of women in executive positions in high tech start up companies. As the article points out, "women own 40 percent of the private businesses in the United States, according to the Center for Women's Business Research. But they create only 8 percent of the venture-backed tech start up, according to Astia, a non-profit group that advises female entrepreneurs." This statistic is all the more surprising and disturbing since women outnumber men on college campuses, law schools, medical schools, and in the work force. The article gives a variety of reasons for why this trend is occurring, including long-lasting sexism, the unwillingness of women to stay enrolled in engineering programs, and the availability of venture capital funds for firms run by women.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/technology/18women.html?scp=2&sq=out%20of%20the%20loop%20in%20silicon%20valley&st=cse
Perhaps one of the major reasons, though, for the lack of women in high tech executive positions may be the absence of girls in high level math and science courses in high school. I can remember visiting a public high school in 2009, looking in on a senior/junior physics class, and seeing only two girls in a class of twenty students. As Failing at Fairness by David and Myra Sakder noted over a decade ago, girls who have very often outperformed their male peers in elementary school math classes began to fall behind in middle high school. (I know that there are plenty of issues plaguing boys in American schools and these require discussion; however, the fact that boys are having difficulties does not mitigate the fact that women still face what seems to be an impenetrable ceiling in certain businesses, and the roots of these inequities may start in middle and high school.)
According to a recent National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study, "new research by a team that includes vocational psychologists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) indicates that the self-confidence instilled by parents and teachers is more important for young girls learning math and science than their initial interest." While people have thought for years that girls were just less interested in math and science than boys, recent studies have found that this may be a result of their feeling inadequate rather than their under-performing. After twenty years of encouraging girls to pursue education in math and science, the stereotypes regarding boys being better than girls in these fields remain, and when young women struggle, their confidence fades quickly. It may be that girls have the ability to do just as well as the boys in their classes, but when they suffer setbacks they give up more quickly because their problems reaffirm the stereotypes that boys are better in science and math. In an article on the study, the authors pointed out that high expectations and teachers demonstrating that they believe in girls doing well in math and science may be some of the most important means for helping young women overcome their hesitancy. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080905153807.htm
While some of this may sound obvious, or just as relevant to boys, the long term repercussions are different. As young women begin to tune out in their math classes, they inadvertently deny themselves future opportunities in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields. On one level, this is an issue of social justice as women are prevented from fulfilling their potential, and society loses out in the end. From a pragmatic perspective, this is all the more disconcerting for at least two reasons. As the gender disparity on college campuses increases, we will need more women to go into these fields if the United States is to compete in a globally interrelated and cutthroat marketplace. The numbers alone will dictate the necessity for women to become engineers. However, as the NYTimes article also discusses, "For those with a bottom-line approach, analysts say it makes a difference when women are in the garages where tech start-ups are founded or the boardrooms where they are funded. Studies have found that teams with both women and men are more profitable and innovative. Mixed-gender teams have produced information technology patents that are cited 26 percent to 42 percent more often than the norm, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology. In a study analyzing the relationship between the composition of corporate boards and financial performance, Catalyst, a research organization on women and business, found a greater return on investment, equity and sales in I.T. companies that have directors who are women." As with the benefits from other forms of diversity, when teams have men and women, the results are more creative and more able to address potential obstacles.
At Crossroads College Prep, we are dedicated to providing opportunities for all of our students regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. We are proud of the performance of our young women in science and math related classes. On nationally standardized tests, our girls outperform their female and male peers in math by far, and there is little difference in their scores and those of their male counterparts at Crossroads College Prep. Girls make up 66% of the school's AP Calculus Class, and 58% percent of the students in the Senior Level Advanced Physics Class are girls. One of the reasons that we altered our science sequence many years ago and required all 9th graders to take a non-math based Physics class is so all girls would take Physics, and would feel confident about their abilities in science. Over the years, this hope has been realized. Just recently at our final assembly for seniors, we were heartened to hear that two thirds of the female members of the Class of 2010 wish to major in STEM related fields in college.
For many reasons, we take pride in the performance of our girls, and we look for them to continue do well in their science and math related courses in college and in their careers, whatever field they choose. Nothing could be more heartwarming than to hear one of our students say to another in admiration, "man, you do math like a girl!"
