Despite plenty of research to the contrary, I still hear people repeat the biggest myth in math education – boys are better at math than girls. It’s sad that a stereotype so thoroughly debunked continues to live on; it’s even sadder that this perception continues to have real, negative impacts on girls and women. It’s one of the reasons they’re more frequently discouraged by parents and others in their lives from pursuing majors and careers in STEM fields. I strongly suspect it also plays a part in girls reporting math anxiety more frequently than boys do. And recent research tells us that for some girls, it even hurts the academic bottom line – in the gradebook, when the unconscious bias of some math teachers leads to lower scores for their female students.

Continue reading “Why Women’s History Month Matters in Math Classrooms” →