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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

WI Professor: Girls Can Do Math As Well As Boys

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Wednesday, October 13, 2010   

MADISON, Wis. - Women can do math just as well as men, and girls can do math just as well as boys. That's the sum total of a study co-authored by UW-Madison Psychology Professor Dr. Janet Hyde, soon to be published by the American Psychological Association. In her words:

"We have data from more than a million people indicating that basically, the gender difference in math performance has disappeared today."

However, says Hyde, preconceived notions still hold.

"The data show that both teachers and parents continue to hold stereotypes that boys are better at math than girls are, despite evidence to the contrary."

She adds there is plenty of evidence that gender is not a predictor of math ability.

"The study has been done that compares various predictors of math performance, about eight or ten of them, and gender is actually the worst predictor."

Hyde says the idea that both genders have equal math abilities is now widely accepted among social scientists, but word has been slow to reach parents and teachers, who both can play inadvertently negative roles by guiding girls away from math-heavy careers such as sciences and engineering.

Half of today's medical students and nearly half of undergraduate math majors are women, although progress in physics and engineering is much slower, says Hyde.

"We all need to encourage our daughters as much as our sons in pursuits that have to do with mathematics and science. We mustn't tell girls that they can't go into engineering or physics, or some area like that, simply because they're girls, and 'girls can't do math.'"

Hyde also is hopeful the new results will slow the trend toward single-sex schools, which she says are sometimes justified on the basis of different math skills.




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