I have always wondered what it would be like to be good at science. Growing up I never was, and never grasped the concepts of the planets, and never quite understood the periodic table of elements as quickly as most people. I never thought about why it was never my thing. I certainly never thought it had anything to do with my gender.
I have always been interested in gender studies, to see how we are different and similar in particular ways. In a study done in 1976 it was concluded by Goldman and Hewitt that SAT math scores were the deciding factor to see if that person would be a science major. Most people will say if you are a math person, you are a science person as well. That was never the case with me, I was never interested in science but I was good at math. My SAT scores in math were my best, but that didn’t mean I was going to become a science major. Bandura, who is a psychologist that studies specific behavior, changes. In 1981 Betz and Hackett conducted a study illustrating the self-efficacy concept done by Bandura, and relating it to career-related behaviors. Mostly used with mathematics ability through males and females to investigate how and why there are more men that are science majors than women.
In the experiment there were fifty males and sixty-four females participating voluntarily and all undergraduate students enrolled in introduction psychology courses. Subjects choose to participate and received college credit. The experiment were split to test mathematics one day and science the second. The results varied for the most part in that males are less anxious and negative about their studies than women. They also are more positive towards their studies, where women are not as confident.
I believe that this is true to a certain extent. I believe women are definitely less confident in themselves then men are. I believe it comes from self-esteem issues, and resulting to why women don’t have confidence in anything they are in or achieve. I think women every day are moving farther and farther away from this stereotype as well, and the fact that I am not a science major or have no intention on being has nothing to do with my gender.
I believe that solving a math problem does not have to do with gender. However though when looking at what career paths gender take it is known that women will go with a liberal arts majors because women are more interested in human relationships and society as we are more caring and warming. With men generally they tend to choice careers that are based on mathematics and science. But everyone is capable of answering a math problem.
I have always have had trouble with math growing up. It is not that I am terrible at math, it has just never been my particular strong suit. I also believe that if you are good at math you are also good at science too. I believe it has something to do with the different ways of logical thinking. I lack the ability to work with numbers and have always been more of an English/ Social Studies kind of mind. I also believe the fact that men may preform better at math than women. Not in all cases, but definitely in mine!