Math and Gender: Is Math a Route to a High-Powered Career?

Abstract

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Gender and competition in adolescence: task matters

“…One way to increase girls' confidence in math is by increasing the confidence level in math of the female teachers (Beilock et al 2010). Another way to increase the share of girls studying math is suggested by Joensen and Nielsen (2013) who find that increasing the flexibility of combining advanced math courses with other courses in high-school induced more Danish girls to take advanced math. If math is a path to a high powered career and gender differences in preferences for competition, varying by task, emerge in adolescent age, our study highlights the importance of teaching math with a larger variety of applications at early age.…”

Future Opportunities for Bioeconomy

“…Additional to the small stock of wild salmon in Faroese lakes, the organisation Føroya Sílaveiðufelag hatches salmon eggs and releases the parr/smolt into different lakes for sport fishing purposes. Around 30 thousand parr/smolt are released every year, but the catch differs between years by a factor of ten, as in good years over thousand salmons can be caught whereas, 2012 the number was only 107 salmons (Joensen, 2013). Small numbers of different species of trout are also present in some lakes, but no statistics are available for these.…”

Examining Science Achievement in Chile: A Multilevel Model Approach

“…Lower science achievement in secondary education may lead females not to enroll in a STEM major in college (Eccles, 2011), which in turn could hinder women's future economic opportunities and social mobility that come along with a STEM career (Joensen & Nielsen, 2013).…”