Had a conversation with a colleague today which turned to the question of Math and gender. She's a mathematician as is her husband. She commented that math came quickly to her son whereas her daughter had to work much harder to get it. I commented that I had noticed a similar difference between my own experience of math in high school and my daughter's.
So is there some biological difference causing this? My colleague was reluctant to think there was but agreed that there are still way more men in her field than women and even in her own classes the typical balance of m/f in advanced math was 27/5. I said, that since schools have been consciously encouraging girls into math and science for decades, this is a paltry improvement so the problem must be deeply rooted and not likely to be just a social problem.

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1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
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