Math. The one subject with the most stigma. The one subject that can elicit powerful emotions. Either you’re for or against. Either you love math or you hate it.
Enjoying math and being good at it, is considered nerdy. The cool kids, on the other hand, gladly claim to be no good at math and they happily declare that it’s the most boring subject.
Why is that? Why have we created such a stigma around math?
Especially girls have a tendency to exclaim that they don’t understand math at all. As girls grow to women and eventually become mothers, they still claim that they don’t understand math. They tell their kids that they cannot help them with their homework because they don’t understand it. But perhaps their father can since he’s good at math.
With that attitude, the women have deemed their daughters incapable of math. And so the cycle continues. The mantra of women are not good at math becomes a self- fulfilling prophecy.
Studies have found that the single most deciding factor on our perception of math is culture. Women are just as capable of math as men. Hence, if we want more women in math, we have to change the culture.
Reading and writing are vital skills, but so is math. The ability to solve complex problems is becoming increasingly important. We have to empower our girls when it comes to math.
Stop telling yourself you’re no good at math. Stop telling your daughter that you’re no good at math. In doing so, you will stop telling your daughter that she’s no good at math.
Changing the culture starts with you.
Photo by Antoine Dautry on Unsplash
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