You ladies up for a little analytic geometry?

When you were in high school, were you more likely to skip art class or chemistry? In your free time, did you write poetry, or take apart that old lawn mower in the basement?  Did you read Seventeen magazine or National Geographic?

If you’re a woman, you might think these questions don’t reveal much, since all of the first options are naturally more enjoyable than the alternatives.  But some experts believe that your preferences – for verbal, humanistic, low-tech pursuits – aren’t natural at all.  Instead, they argue, you enjoy the activities you enjoy because your early education lead you to believe that these topics were your strong suits.  Meanwhile, your male classmates were getting a very different message.

A recent article suggests that female students may be limited by their own perception of their strengths and intelligence.  The author argues that young, male students – often unruly and distracted – are better coached in the art of effort and perseverance.  Boys learn that they can, eventually, master a lesson, so long as they’re willing to dedicate the time.

Young girls, by contrast, are usually putting their best foot forward in the classroom.  Stereotypically, female students are already attentive and eager to please.  If they struggle with a lesson, despite meeting it with full concentration, they are more likely to infer that the lesson (be it math, science or basketball layups) is not their “thing.”  They may be more inclined to give up on the subject, and to avoid the future messiness of errors and false attempts.

The observation that women opt out of “difficult” or “masculine” fields is not a new one.  In the 1970’s, Albert Bandura proposed the concept of self-efficacy, particularly as it pertains to learning and education.  Bandura’s theories show that students’ faith in their own capabilities (or lack thereof) directly impacts their interest and motivation levels.  In other words, when students lack confidence in a given subject area, it’s less likely they’ll want to learn it.

And clearly, somewhere along the way, girls stopped trusting their talents for technical or mathematical tasks.

Although female students have made great strides in narrowing educational and professional gaps, there are still some huge disparities.  As recently as 2001, only 20% of undergraduate degrees in engineering were awarded to female students.  And only 28% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science went to women. These figures exist, despite the fact that women now outnumber men in undergraduate enrollment – by more than 2.5 million.

But why does all this matter?  What’s wrong with women wanting to be teachers and nurses in much greater numbers than male students?  Why should anyone dissuade them from studying what they enjoy?

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with women pursuing nursing degrees or education degrees.  In fact, our country needs more high-achieving college graduates in both sectors.  At the same time, it’s been estimated that most of America’s current jobs will be dramatically altered in the next 20 years.  (Already the health care and teaching sectors are seeing overhauls via medical informatics and education technology.  The next generation of nurses and teachers won’t be able to dodge technical competency requirements.)

Moreover, business experts and government officials agree that science and technology will define a large percentage of tomorrow’s high-paying jobs – in fields like biomedicine, agriculture, clean energy, transportation and more.  If women continue to avoid these areas, the male/female salary differential will persist, women will continue to be more likely than men to live in poverty (as one White House report demonstrates), and more young women will forfeit vast categories of career options before they’ve even left middle school.

This March, in honor of Women’s History Month, study something that’s outside your wheelhouse.  Overcome your tech-phobia, research the stock market, or redeem yourself for all those chemistry classes you skipped in high school.  You’ll likely discover that academic success transcends even the high value of college credits or grade point averages.  Academic success, and the confidence it instills, is often the only way to find your true direction, and to stop settling for a little girl’s self image.

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