Feminists and math

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Thursday, March 2. 2017

Feminists wish to demystify mathematics - and all science too. Go for it, ladies. Please. Math beyond Calculus was a mystery to me due mainly to my IQ limitations. Physical Chemistry stumped me too, which is how I ended up in my career path.

The teaching of science and mathematics must be purged of its authoritarian and elitist characteristics, and the content of these subjects enriched by incorporating the insights of the feminist, queer, multiculturalist and ecological critiques.

I haven't seen any queer critiques of Pythagoras yet, but he was probably gay anyway, being Greek.

Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 16:50 | Comments (20) | Trackback (1)

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My lab partner in medical school had a PhD in P-chem. He flunked the first biochem quiz and the instructor talked to him about it. He was quickly given an A and went on to other things.

The Biochem instructor realized the questions were nonsense.

The rest of us passed.

He was one of the two guys who designed the solid fuel rockets at Rocketdyne. He used to work summers there in medical school. He went on to be a pathologist.

#1 Mike-K (Link) on 2017-03-02 17:56 (Reply)

Sometimes I think being a physical chemist is worthless. You're not a real physicist and you forget all of your chemistry.

But, it does provide a pretty good insight into how the world works, from thermo, to kinetics/dynamics, to spectroscopy.

And if all else fails you can always mutter w/ authority "Yeah but strictly speaking, temperature is only defined under equilibrium conditions."

#1.1 DrTorch on 2017-03-02 22:38 (Reply)

Many years ago working on my bachelors in computer science we had lots of wanna be's who should have been in Liberal Arts or something else. One attractive young lady just couldn't code and she would take her listings off the printer and head for the instructors office. He would help her fix it and she would submit it again. She kept this up all through the course and got an 'A'. I'm thinking she was getting more than coding help in the instructors office. I'm thinking there was some mutual "demystifying" going on in there.

#2 OneGuy on 2017-03-02 19:50 (Reply)

When I got my BSChE in 1980, 4 or 3 of our class of about 14 were female. Recently, I took a quick peek at the number of female engineers from the school over the years, and it seems the number peaked in the 80's. For whatever reason, the numbers have declined. Dumbing down math does a disservice to the students, hiring authorities, and the users of the numbers. I'd prefer engineers know how to do the computations and understand the math behind the software they're using.

#3 Mark on 2017-03-02 20:30 (Reply)

Dumbing down math does a disservice to the students, hiring authorities, and the users of the numbers.
The best student in my Cheg class was a woman. She would spend 20 minutes in class doing homework problems that would take most of us hours.

#3.1 Gringo on 2017-03-02 21:48 (Reply)

From what I understand there is a wider variance or distribution of IQ's and in particular the real geeky math and science abilities in males than there is in females. It is a good news bad news story. That is there are more male geniuses and more ultra geniuses in males than females. At the same time there are more dummies or neanderthals in males than females. Another factor is that a males interests tend to be more mechanical/mathematical/scientific and females tend to be more social/family/caregiver oriented. I think these two factors are the reason that more males choose stem fields than females do.

#4 OneGuy on 2017-03-02 22:37 (Reply)

Small little glitch in the feminist agenda. Women and math/science causes an embarrassment. However, there is nothing that cannot be fixed by pairing female students who can't, with male students who can--everyone proudly proclaims the glories of "collaboration". The gals can write down the notations, manage the budget, set the calendar and get their names on the research project! Then, what's even better--they get the job as department head! Of course.

#5 faculty wife on 2017-03-02 23:26 (Reply)

In spite of the IQ distribution advantage that men have, they're increasingly not stepping up to the plate. we're 43-57 (men to women) on graduating seniors at my university. Worse yet, grading a man's handwritten exam is an excruciating chore in chicken-tracking, while grading his female classmate's exam is a pleasure to read. Sometimes the answers are even correct.

#6 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2017-03-03 00:06 (Reply)

PChem-1971 1st year of Grad school...hardest class I had in all my years, both undergrad and grad school, in University as I was the only non-ChemEngineering major in the class. Those were pre-calculator years so slide rules were the norm. (calculators were too expensive for most poor graduate students and I didn't get a calculator until 1975--through the University bookstore and payments...$20/month...for an HP programmable)

#7 rocdoctom on 2017-03-03 10:05 (Reply)

"we're 43-57 (men to women) on graduating seniors at my university."

Wouldn't that trip a title IX investigation and force a bureaucratic solution on the college(s)?

"grading a man's handwritten exam is an excruciating chore"

I have often given this thought. In the 8th grade I was low man in penmanship class and now almost 60 years later my handwriting is no better. I do think women have an anatomical advantage with pencil and paper. Smaller hands and smaller muscle. Luckily I took three years of mechanical drawing and my printing is excellent. I do think printing is much nicer than cursive and when done to the standards of drafting very attractive. I wonder if I could get an SSI for my disabled cursive writing...

If colleges only taught "college" classes then I would agree with you. But let's be honest there is no difference between women's/black/Hispanic studies and basket weaving. More than half of the people in college are taking classes in pure basket weaving 'light' classes and they are there for the free money from the government. I will admit that I even told my son when he lost his job a few years back to enroll in the community college and they would give him enough money to pay for his classes and his rent with some left over. It is way past time for colleges to get back to college level/worthy classes and for the government to get out of funding students to take basket weaving 101 for four years.

#8 IdahoBob on 2017-03-03 10:11 (Reply)

I've never understood what's supposed to be mystifying about math and science. Surely the problem is that some people just don't have an aptitude for it, male or female. There are other fine things to be good at, if this doesn't happen to be your thing.

#9 Texan99 on 2017-03-03 10:13 (Reply)

It is high abstraction

#9.1 Bird Dog on 2017-03-03 10:37 (Reply)

Sure, but what's mystifying about high abstraction? That is, it can be difficult if you're not gifted in that direction, but it's not as though the problem were that people were unnecessarily thwarting your understanding by "mystifying" it. If your mind is suited for that kind of thing, it's the very opposite of mystifying; it's brilliantly clear and exciting and fun.

#9.1.1 Texan99 on 2017-03-03 13:03 (Reply)

"The teaching of science and mathematics must be purged of its authoritarian and elitist characteristics, and the content of these subjects enriched by incorporating the insights of the feminist, queer, multiculturalist and ecological critiques."

Why does the name Trofim Lysenko come to my mind?

#10 JJM on 2017-03-03 11:01 (Reply)

Changing the names of things doesn't fool people for long. Kids figure out quickly that the Giraffes are the bad reading group, and that Sununu Center = Youth Development Center = State Industrial School = Reform School = Kids' Jail. (And they know that lots of kids are there because of their parents' problems, not their own problems.)

Though maybe it takes adults longer.

#11 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2017-03-03 11:41 (Reply)

Well someone wasn't paying attention which post he was commenting on, eh?

#11.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2017-03-03 11:42 (Reply)

Everybody knows that math was invented by the Africans. That Greek guy Euclid went to the library in Alexandria and checked out a book on geometry and then claimed he invented geometry. Actually, all math is just cultural misappropriation by old white guys.

#12 Ray on 2017-03-03 12:00 (Reply)

#13 Gringo on 2017-03-03 12:29 (Reply)

We could then add "...only then will the People understand that 2 + 2 = 5."

#13.1 Whitehall on 2017-03-04 06:30 (Reply)

I hope you're not talking about my daughter.

She's getting her Ph.D in biophysics from Heidelberg but was captain of the cheerleader squad in her high school in Silicon Valley before getting her BS with dual majors in physics and math at Flagstaff.

I believe she did the work and didn't just charm her way through.

#14 Whitehall on 2017-03-04 03:28 (Reply)

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Thursday, March 2. 2017

Feminists and math