According to the New York Times 58% of all bachelor's, master's, and doctorates degrees in biology are awarded to women (which conveniently matches up with the infographic above). Now this is an impressive stat but when you look deeper it reveals a sad truth. Besides futures in medicine, biology is the least paid avenue of the core sciences.
Lets look further at the picture above. In today's economy the higher paid jobs are more on the left side with engineering and the math heavy sciences. Those are the sciences where woman are vastly underrepresented.
Lets look further at the picture above. In today's economy the higher paid jobs are more on the left side with engineering and the math heavy sciences. Those are the sciences where woman are vastly underrepresented.
As teachers, what can we do to encourage our female students to explore the more math based sciences? According to Dr. Huebner in a paper written for the ASCD, teachers need to implement teaching strategies that promote a high-mastery classroom with specific teacher feedback. This along with creating an open environment for all students to not become discouraged from the math intensive sciences can start to even out the gender gap that we see above.
Sources:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/where-the-women-are-biology.html?_r=0
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/Encouraging-Girls-to-Pursue-Math-and-Science.aspx
Sources:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/where-the-women-are-biology.html?_r=0
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/Encouraging-Girls-to-Pursue-Math-and-Science.aspx