“Underrepresentation” or Misrepresentation? Post 2 Rachel Tang

 

When I first said that the issue of underrepresentation of women in the math and science field is a multi-faceted issue with many different angles, I didn’t think I would be reading of such contrasting issues between the first and second essay in Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams’ “Why Aren’t More Women in Scinece?”. Doreen Kimura’s essay ‘”Underrepresentation” or Misrepresentation?’ has a completely opposite opinion from that of Valian’s and is something I feel as though is mostly heard from men rather than women, which is heard most publicly in Lawrence Summer’s speech in 2005. The overarching point Kimura makes is that the reason why the math and science field is predominantly male is because men possess innate skills that make them better in those fields while women possess other skills that make them strive in other fields, such as nursing. However, the major difference between what Kimura puts forth and what Summer put forth is that Summer simplifies his conclusions to men being more intelligent than women while Kimura makes the point that men inherently possess the traits to succeed in math and science while women possess the skills to succeed in other fields and there is therefore no need to try and balance out the difference in gender in the math and science field. Kimura also brings up the excessiveness of our society trying to balance the gender in math and science by giving incentives such as scholarships and awards.

Kimura starts off the essay mentioning how our society tends to take it as an issue when there isn’t an equal gender representation in one particular field for women and how excessive it is to do so. She then goes off to point out how society doesn’t make as big of a deal when men are underrepresented in a field and how it should stay that way. I personally do not agree with this statement in any way. I think just the opposite because there should be a somewhat equal representation of genders in each field. Just because us as a society don’t speak up about the underrepresentation of male in certain fields like education doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing to be doing. In fact, I believe that as a society, we must change that. Male and female both think in a different way and bring different strengths and weaknesses to the table. Sometimes, getting a job done right is by having the smartest person to do the job, but to work together with a diverse group of people to come to the best conclusion, therefore it is vital to have a diverse mix of people, including that of both genders.

 

Kimura talks a lot about how men have the right skill set to be better in the math and science field than women and how that’s why men are more likely to dominate in such fields. Yet she fails to talk about the gender bias that plays a significant role as well in society. Would she not agree that by creating the assumption that men are inherently more fine tuned to be good at math and science than women are, that society will create a stereotype and a bias against women who may be just as or even more qualified the some men in that field?

 

Kimura emphasizes towards the end a somewhat reverse discrimination our society has caused by intentionally leaving seats open for women to fill in the math and science department and how it’s detrimental to our society as many men who may be much more qualified than a woman will not have the opportunity to flourish and get a job in that company. Yet, these awards and scholarships are given out by merit, therefore means that these women are just as qualified as men who enter that field. There is a standard that is set that these women must reach.

 

Though I may not agree with some of what Kimura has to say, I appreciate seeing this topic tackled in such a different angle, which helps me realize just how hard of a topic this actually is and shows why it’s so hard to reach a conclusion or solution.