Masculinity of mathematics

The two variables that load on Component 8 obtained from the PCA, which is conceptualized to relate to gender (Table 4.3, p.80) are:

 32 The learner’s gender affects the successful learning of mathematics (V12)  2 Mathematics is a subject in which male students are more likely to be successful

(V13).

The GLM analysis on the Scores of Component 8 (Table A4.15, p.262) shows that there is significant difference (p= 0.033) between the overall male and female Scores where the Scores for the female participants are smaller than the males’ (see Error-Bar plot, p.262). This could be interpreted as lack of agreement to the view that gender of the learner matters when learning mathematics by the females when compared with the males’. Further examination of the survey data as presented in Table 7.1 (p.160), shows that the majority of respondents clearly disagreed (73%) with V12. The Logistic analysis given in Table A4.27 (p.271) shows that the male respondents were 1.5 times (with 95% confidence interval (0.5, 4.3)) more likely to agree with V12 when compared with the female respondents; and the mature respondents were slightly (estimated OR = 1.4 with 95% confidence interval of (0.4, 4.2)) more likely to agree with V12 than the younger respondents. In addition the majority of the respondents (55%) did not agree with V13. Further investigation using Logistic Regression (Table A4.26, p.271) shows that the mature respondents were also more than three times more likely (estimated OR = 3.2 with 95% confidence interval of (1.2, 8.6)) to agree with V13 than the younger students. Putting the pattern of the responses for V12 and V13 together indicates that the male respondents held the common view that mathematics is a male domain than did the female respondents. Mendick (2006) also confirms that male students would uphold the stereotyped belief of mathematics being a male subject. Frost, et al. (1994) from a meta-analysis of studies on gender differences and mathematics performances confirmed that female students did not view mathematics as a male domain when compared with male students. I examined the data obtained from the interviews.

Simon (Nigerian, Male, Finance and Banking, in-depth interview) said, ‘It never crossed my mind that girls are not good in mathematics’; whereas Elsa based on her observations said, ‘…all the teachers I have and the teachers that teach my children are all male. So I just think generally men are good at maths…’ (Ghanaian, Female, Biomedical Sciences, in-depth interview); Martha (White, Female, Biomedical Sciences, in-depth interview) thought ‘mathematics is a male subject’; Ed thought that tradition had a role in making mathematics look a male subject by saying, ‘…traditionally women are not allowed to take subjects that involve a lot of thinking… so we always thought of maths as a masculine subject’ (Nigerian, Male, Mathematics, in-depth interview); Maya and Faith both Female, Bangladeshi and doing Accounting and Finance and Finance and Banking respectively, and Mario, himself studying mathematics, did not think mathematics to be gendered. Mario philosophically viewed mathematics as:

…the only true language in existence and that true language is for both boys and girls… throughout history, the development of

mathematics has come from various different cultures and from both men and women; you can’t just say that it is just men that can do or just women that can do it. It is a subject that anybody with a passion can do it (Mario, White, Male, Mathematics, in-depth interview).

The majority of the in-depth and focus groups participants had the view that rejected the stereotyped view of a gendered mathematics; a similar view was supported by the respondents of the questionnaire where only 7% believed that mathematics is gendered (see Table 7.1, p.160).

The participants of the focus groups were asked to discuss the question ‘Is mathematics gendered?’ and the topic generated a lively discussion. To start with, two of the participants of the focus group A reacted negatively to the question. Fiona said, ‘I think it is against my belief and a stereotype of mathematicians and I could not answer that question. I do not think it is a good question’ (Fiona, White, Female, Biomedical Sciences,

Group A). Ellen, who was doing the same course as Fiona, followed on directly with, ‘Like Fiona I think it is a stereotyped question and a myth’ (Ellen, White, Female, Biomedical Sciences, Group A). I sensed that there was a misunderstanding, possibly caused by my position (a mathematician), gender (male) and ethnicity (black) asking a question which Fiona and Ellen inferred as challenging their belief regarding the two genders. So, as pointed out in Section 3.5, this was an unexpected ethical issue and it was addressed by me explaining that the focus of the question was to find the views of the participants and that it was not to be taken as an established factual statement, that one gender is positioned to be better than the other. Both Fiona and Ellen accepted my explanation and the discussion continued. Within the progressive discourse of mathematics the female participants, Fiona and Ellen were of the view that the belief mathematics is a male subject is a myth and both male and female can do and understand mathematics (view similar to the one reported by Mendick, et al., 2008) in their study of mathematics in popular culture and Liz, answering the question said:

No, nothing is just for men or just for women. Historically, it is a male-dominated subject. And for me personally, it was the media or films regarding this subject… because of the society…but at the base of it I do not think that men are particularly better in maths than women or women are better in maths than men; it does

not exist. It is because of society and because of this trend we have that more men are going into maths than women

(Liz, White, Female, Biomedical Sciences, Group A). Harriet added:

… If you look into it, Pythagoras had his colleagues, it wasn’t only him; he had like followers; there were people around him who can help him to discover things but it never gets mentioned. But there will have been, I believe, women involved in that. However, because society was male-dominated and that is how we remember it (Harriet, White, Female, Mathematics, Group A).

Both Liz and Harriet justified their position of not agreeing with V13 in line with historical discourse about mathematics. In addition, their view of mathematics not being gendered is

in line with the widely held view of the respondents of the questionnaire. As pointed out in Chapter Two (Section 2.6) similar beliefs were reported by the school children studied by Francis (2000b).