Do you remember that talking Barbie from the early 1990's that said, ?Math class is tough!?? Do you remember the scandal that ensued? Poor Barbie got raked through the coals for allegedly perpetrating the stereotype that females are naturally unskilled in math and science.Who would have thought our favorite fashion doll would ever have anything in common with the president of Harvard University? A couple of weeks ago, Harvard president Larry Summers hypothesized that the lack of women in science and math-related fields could be due to ?innate sex differences? between men and women. He has since been roasted, a la Barbie's treatment last decade, by publications all around the country for adding further fuel to the idea that females either are physiologically unable to comprehend mathematical concepts or are, like, too busy thinking about shoes to do so.The women/math debate has been going on for ages, with the same nature (does a Y chromosome make it easier to find the sum of Y?) versus nurture (are girls discouraged from excelling in school, or at least being proud of getting good science grades?) speculations applied to any number of battles between the sexes. I will always be suspect of "evidence" of supposed female math/science ?sex differences;? I know plenty of women who have high-profile science-field jobs, or can recite pi to the hundredth digit. I also know guys who can barely do long division.Our job is to not explain away difference but to offer equal opportunity. To strip away the challenges and obstacles that prevent girls from being all they can be in the areas of science, math and, heck, let's add sports while we're at it (anybody noticed the recent attemps to erode Title IX recently?)! And let's look to ourselves, and the messages we reinforce and the roll models we hold in esteem. Maybe there should have been a Barbie that said ?Trigonometry is rad!?, and a Ken doll that said math is tough for him, too. That would even the equation. Get it, equation? Little math joke.Help a girl become a geek! Check out sites like these that help girls realize their full potential in the areas of math and science.
