女性不擅長理科的十大原因(上)

In an archived comic from Dog House Diaries, the artist places two near-identical images side by side. In the first image, one male looks on as another scrawls a mathematical equation on a chalk board.

《狗舍日記》上曾刊載過一個漫畫，漫畫家把兩張幾乎相同的圖片放在一起，在第一張圖中，一個男生坐在一邊，看另一個男生歪歪扭扭地在黑板上寫下一個方程式。

"Wow, you suck at math," the male says to the other male. In the next image, a female is seen scrawling the exact same equation on a chalkboard. "Wow, girls suck at math," the same male onlooker states. Although humorous, the comic speaks of a pernicious view that continues to affect women and society. Despite the continued progress with females in the workforce, there is still a notable absence of women leading math and science professions. It isn't simply men who perpetuate the stereotype that women are not as innately inclined to these subjects—far from it! Several studies have shown unconscious biases across the board toward women in regard to their skills in math and science. Even some well-meaning teachers are being shown to believe these stereotypes, and thus the oppression of girls—some who could very well retain the skill set to be math and science prodigies—continues as women choose more "feminine" professions and men lead the pack when it comes to math, science, technology and engineering. Below, we are counting down the top 10 reasons you (yes, you) believe that girls are bad at math and science. Alongside these reasons, we will be providing research studies and analyses that debunk these beliefs.

"哇喔，你的數學糟透了，"旁觀的男生對小夥伴說。另外一幅圖中，旁觀的男生沒變，寫方程式的是一個女生。"天哪！女生的數學糟透了！"男生如是說。儘管看起來挺幽默，這則漫畫卻影射了一個不好的觀點，一個持續困擾女性羣體乃至整個社會的觀點：儘管女性在人才市場的情況已不斷改進，但理科領域的女性領軍人物少之又少。長期以來，男性都認爲女性根本沒有理科慧根，可原因不僅僅如此，甚至還相差很遠。數項研究發現，人們的確對女性理科能力存在廣泛的偏見，甚至還有幾位好心的專家指出：即使女孩們選擇了"女性化"的職業——其中不乏一些條件不錯，可能成爲理科精英的女性，她們也還將受到這種偏見帶來的壓力，而男孩子則繼續在理科領域遙遙領先。下面，我們就列出你(沒錯！就是你！)認爲女性不擅理科的十大原因，同時，我們會用研究和數據一一拆穿這些謬誤。

10.偏見

We all know that you shouldn't hire someone under bias or prejudice, and although we still have a long way to go, there has been significant progress in hiring processes that work to ensure that discrimination is not a factor in the process. Still, with the average woman continuing to earn less than men overall, there is still plenty of room (as in, acres and acres' worth of room) for improvement.

目前，社會招聘程序已取得顯著進步，確保整個過程免受歧視或偏見的影響。因爲我們知道，招聘就不應心懷成見，儘管爲達到這一目標，我們還有很長一段路要走，目前女性整體人均工資水平仍低於男性，我們的進步空間還很大(按照目前這種速度來的話)。

Not all employers who make biased decisions while hiring actually intend to be biased in their decision. What if someone has an implicit or unconscious bias that is affecting their decisions? Sometimes even the most well-meaning of employers fall victim to their subconscious, and this in turn can have an impact on the people we seeing leading fields like math and science (among others). A 2008 study placed employers in one group and "job candidates" of different gender in another group. The researchers gave candidates a math test which entailed, "…adding up sets of two-digit numbers in a 4-minute math sprint. (The researchers did not tell the subjects, but it is already known that men and women perform equally well on this task.)" In spite of the simple math task being one that both genders could excel at, it was found that when employers were given a photograph of the candidate (which was the only information they had on the candidate), "…men were twice as likely to be hired for the simple math job, no matter whether it was a man or woman doing the hiring…" Moreover, the employers were given an Implicit Association Test, which revealed unconscious biases in regard to perceived ability for men and women in mathematical professions.

並不是所有做出帶有偏見的決定的僱主就心懷成見。如果說是他們的潛意識左右了他們呢？有時候，即使一些心懷善念的僱主都會受其影響，反過來，這也會影響我們看待理科等頂尖領域中所謂高知的眼光。2008年一項研究將僱主和應聘者分成兩組。每位應聘者都會做一項測試："4分鐘內完成兩位數加法速算。"(當時，雙方對這項研究都不知情，但大家都已知道，受測的男女表現不分伯仲)在這一測試中，男女的表現都相當出色，但當拿到受測對象的照片時(這是僱主僅有的關於應聘者的唯一信息)，男性被錄取的可能性整整高出了一倍——無論僱主是男是女，同時，僱主們還做了一項內隱聯想測試，測試結果也暴露了人們潛意識中對男女理科能力高下的判斷。

Fulfilling Prophecies

9.自我實現預期

A self-fulfilling prophecy is defined as, "Any positive or negative expectation about circumstances, events, or people that may affect a person's behavior toward them in a manner that causes those expectations to be fulfilled…An employer who, for example, expects the employees to be disloyal and shirkers, will likely treat them in a way that will elicit the very response he or she expects."

自我實現預期是指人們對環境、事件、他人都會抱有的某種或好或壞的期待，這些期待會影響人們待人接物的行爲，從而使這些期待變成現實。例如：一位僱主覺得自己的僱員是一羣不忠的混吃等死之輩，那他對待僱員的方式可能讓僱員真的變成他想象中的那樣。

In the above example, we saw how bias from employers could lead to such self-fulfilling prophecies, and girls and women have been shown to unconsciously secure their fates as those that either shy away from math and science professions, or whose ability to perform well in these subjects is hindered by internalization of biases. From a very young age, girls and boys are bombarded with messages about how their gender dictates certain facets of their personality as well as their aspirations. Boys may strive for success in math and science because they are led to believe that their gender provides them with innate skills in these subjects, while girls may experience anxiety at school while being handed math and science projects after being led to believe these subjects will never be their strong suit. A 2012 study published in Psychological Science sought to investigate the impact that entity theories (defined as the belief that innate qualities can dictate your skill set) had on children. The study involved 144 children between the ages of four and seven who were all instructed to play a matching game involving 3-D block images. During the first round of the game, one of the researchers told some of the children that the boys playing the game were more successful, while a second group was told that one of the females had excelled at the game, and a third group was given no information.

上面的例子揭露了偏見是如何影響僱主的自我實現預期。相應的，女性也常無意識地選擇明哲保身：有些人遠離涉及理科的領域，有能力駕馭這些學科也逐漸在泛濫的偏見中黯然失色。人們從小就被灌輸了大量諸如"性別決定性格"、"性別決定志向"的理論。男生決心在理科上大展拳腳，因爲人們說男生生來就是學理的料，女生卻常常在接到理科項目時感到焦慮，因爲人還說，理科從來都不是女生的強項。2012年，一項出版在《心理科學》的實驗試圖揭示實體理論（即天分決定技能論）對小孩的影響，實驗對象是144名4-7歲的兒童，他們將在接受指導後玩一個3D圖像的連線遊戲。第一輪遊戲期間，一位研究員告訴第一組：男生更會玩這個遊戲，告訴第二組：其中一名女生已出色完成遊戲，第三組沒有任何提示。

The impact of those statements was evident in the second, more challenging round of the game. As summarized by Slate: "The scores of those who were given the gender prompts fell by an average of 12.8 percent. By contrast, children who were told about another individual child's success or failure stayed about the same. Scores fell 2.9 percent among the kids who heard nothing."

這些話在更加激烈的第二輪遊戲中收到可立竿見影的效果。實驗結果如下：第一組分數下降12.8%，第二組分數持平，第三組分數下降2.9%。

Genders Believe the Stereotype

8.男性女性都相信"女性不擅理"

It isn't simply men who are perpetuating the stereotype that girls and women are bad at math and science—many females believe it too! In our first example where employers were found to have biases against women in regard to mathematical ability, the female employers were found to have just as strong as a bias as the male employers. Furthermore, various STEM research studies have shown that "…barriers like stereotypes, gender bias, and a discouraging classroom atmosphere can deter women from pursuing careers in these areas and may explain why there are so few female scientists and engineers." Another STEM research study noted, "Femininity is linked to math anxiety towards math and doing worse in math, so it may be difficult for women to feel both feminine and confident in their math abilities."

長期以來，使"女性不擅理"這一理論根深蒂固的不僅僅是男性，女性也相信這一理論。第一個例子中，僱主普遍對女性的數學能力存在偏見，其中，女僱主的成見並不比男僱主少。STEM（科學，技術，工程，數學）研究發現，成見、性別歧視、壓抑的課堂氛圍都會使女性在面對理科職業時望而卻步，這也是女性科學家、女工程師如此之少的原因。還有STEM調查表明，女性特徵與數學焦慮、不擅數學息息相關，所以讓一個散發着女性光輝的女生對數學充滿信心是相當困難的。

ity Varies by Country

7.在不同國家，女性理工科的能力千差萬別

When it comes to a nature versus nurture argument regarding females and their abilities within math and science, nurture would reign supreme according to recent studies. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, "…15-year-old girls around the world, outperform boys in science – except for in the United States, Britain and Canada."

研究發現：在男女理科能力的種族大比拼中，後天培養起着主導作用。據經濟合作和發展組織稱，除了美國、英國和加拿大之外，其他國家和地區中十五歲左右的女性都會在理科上表現得比男性更出色。

Further research showed that, "…countries with the poorest degrees of gender equality also have the widest gulfs between male and female mathematical performance." Conversely, the US Department of Education found that girls, "…who have a strong self-concept regarding their abilities in math or science are more likely to choose and perform well in elective math and science courses and to select math and science-related college majors and careers." None of this evidence is surprising, but it is disconcerting to think that girls and women who would otherwise be excelling in math and science and who may also have potential to expound upon these talents with successful—and profitable—careers within the field are pursuing different trajectories due to the biases against them.

調查還發現：一個國家，男女越平等，男女間數學能力上的差距越小。而美國教育部卻發現了一個不同的結果：那些對自己工科能力具有強烈認知的女性會在工科選修課上表現出色。同時，她們也會更偏向於選擇在大學進修理工類相關專業，畢業後從事理工類相關工作。上述的調查結果並不令人驚訝，令人驚訝的是：那些本可以在理工科遊刃有餘的姑娘們，那些本可以在理工類職業中揚名立萬的姑娘們，爲何就因爲社會偏見而選擇了其他職業呢？

n Choose "Love" Over Math and Science

6.感性勝於理性

On an unconscious level, some women feel that pursuing careers in math and science will make them less romantically desirable. During middle and high school years, girls—particularly heterosexual girls—are liable to conform to what society purports to be "attractive" and "desirable" to the opposite sex. Girls are taught to be delicately feminine while boys are taught to be brawny and masculine.

女性在潛意識裏認爲追求理科學位會令自己缺乏浪漫因子。進入中學的姑娘們——特指直女——開始遵循社會對女性的要求，變得"具有吸引力"和"令人覺得性感"，女孩就應該變得優雅有女人味，如同男孩就應該健壯有男人味。

In 2011, Psychology Today made note of different studies that showed women believed men would find them less desirable if they pursued mathematics or science careers and that women also cared about math less when having "romance on the mind." "In one study, male and female undergraduates saw images related to either romance (romantic restaurants, beach sunsets, lit candles) or intelligence (eyeglasses, libraries, books), in order to get the students thinking about their romantic or achievement-related goals. Later, they rated their interest in math, technology, science and engineering. The researchers found that among men, interest in these subjects was not influenced by the images they had seen. But among women, those who viewed romantic images expressed far less interest in math and science. (Interestingly, women who viewed intelligence images expressed the same level of interest as the men!)" Psychology Today went on to note the implications these types of stereotypes have for men as well, i.e., just as women may shy away from careers that are perceived as "masculine", men may shy away from careers that are perceived as "feminine", such as those within teaching, counseling and the arts.

在2011年《今日心理學》曾指出，各類研究表明女性普遍認爲：工科女性缺少男人緣，而滿腦子桃色念頭的女生也的確不太關心理工學科的內容。"在一個高校學生的文理職業理想，研究人員先讓他們分別觀察感性圖片（如浪漫的餐廳、黃昏的沙灘、燃燒的燭光）和理性圖片（如眼鏡、圖書館、書籍），然後開始測試學生對數學、技術類學科、工程學的興趣度。研究發現，男生感興趣的學科並不受所看圖片的影響。但在女生當中，觀察感性圖片的人則對數學和科學很不感冒。（有意思的是，觀察理性圖片的女生對理工類學科的興趣度與男生是一樣！）"《今日心理學》後來又指出，此類刻板印象對男性也具有影響。也就是說，就像女性怕被喊成"女漢子"而怯於去獲取更多學位，男性同樣怕被視爲很"娘"而不願意去取得諸如教育、諮詢或藝術相關的學位。

審校：西瓜 編輯：listen 來源：前十網