Several projects recently have suggested specific actions that could be taken in developing countries to improve the lot of women.

• The Poverty Action Lab's ongoing project "Menstruation and Education in Nepal" is examining whether distributing menstrual cups can help Nepalese women and girls overcome cultural taboos that restrict their mobility ( Read more... )

Burman and Booth (2008) searched for brain activation differences by sex that could explain the persistent performance differences on language tasks between boys and girls. Burman and Booth's fMRI study scanned 62 children (50% male) during rhyming and spelling tasks presented in written or verbal form. They concluded that boys and girls were ( Read more... )

Reuters (2007) reported yesterday that Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland continue to top the World Economic Forum's ranking of countries by gender equality. The countries at the bottom of the 128-country list were Yemen, Chad, Pakistan, Nepal, and Saudi Arabia. The Global Gender Gap Report 2007 examines four areas for equality: economic, ( Read more... )

Jaqueline "Jackie" Spears got tired of making other teachers defensive. In teacher in-service classes, she found that the topic made teachers so uncomfortable that they would just shut down, and math and science teachers did not seem to attend at all. "I became interested in finding ways to talk about the issue so that the teachers would open up ( Read more... )

Wilson et al (1994) suggested that girls and boys may have different motivations for selecting the courses they choose to study. Wilson surveyed a group of 947 "gifted adolescents" in a three-week academic program, and asked them why they chose the courses they did. Girls were more likely than boys to report choosing a class because it was ( Read more... )

insidehighered reports on the COACHE Survey (2007) findings that indicate significant differences in job satisfaction in academia. The survey of 6,773 junior faculty conducted by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 found significant differences in satisfaction and ratings of policy "effectiveness" ( Read more... )

I keep forgetting to mention when there's a U.S. Holiday (which is when I tend to take a break). For your entertainment until tomorrow, here's a couple of videos. I despise embedded video, so I'll just provide links:

"Gender in the Classroom." length=4:40 (uploaded 2/20/2007) An interview with two educators. Watching them ignore the ( Read more... )

Morgan et al (2001) found both men and women ranked "interesting work" as a high priority when determining their career choices, as determined by college major. However, the two groups seemed to find different things interesting: men were more likely to be enrolled in math or physical science programs, whereas women were more likely to choose ( Read more... )

Hyde and Linn (1988) suggest in their meta-analysis of 165 studies that gender differences in verbal ability may "no longer exist." In their paper on math and science differences in the following year, Linn and Hyde (1989) do find substantial differences, which they attribute to differences in access and encouragement. Herbert Marsh (1990) agrees ( Read more... )

Orenstein (2002) found that women had higher belief in the paranormal than men when other factors were not controlled. While Orenstein did find that conventional religious belief appeared to correlate with paranormal belief, an inverse relationship was found with church attendance in both men and women. As we've previously noted, women are ( Read more... )