Women in STEM

There is a correlation between the level of a person’s spatial abilities and their excellence in science and math. The abilities of being able to distinguish an object’s shape, location, and change over time are all imperative skills for excelling in STEM. Young adult’s spatial abilities are an outstanding predictor of how well that young adult will do in STEM areas in the future (“Prior Research on Spatial Thinking”). Males tend to outperform females in tests of their spatial abilities by an average of one-half to seven-tenths of a standard deviation (“Prior Research on Spatial Thinking”). Women’s lack of spatial abilities can be traced back to the toys they played with as children.

 

Children develop their spatial abilities by playing with toys such as building blocks, construction sets, and puzzles. Toy stores tend to divide toys into gender specific sections. “Girl” toys focus on traditional feminine and maternal qualities. These toys vary from baby dolls to cooking sets to dress-up bins. “Boy” toys play on traditionally masculine ideas such as toy cars, sports items, and construction sets. Girls get toys such as vacuums and baby strollers - toys with very low spatial learning capabilities - while boys get science-based toys and models. The Toys R Us website has eleven different building sets for girls, and forty-seven for boys (Godfrey). If, from an extremely young age - 12 months and under is the youngest caption – females are not getting the same exposure to spatial ability boosting toys as males, it is no wonder that there is such a large gap between the amount of men and women in STEM.