Introduction: Towards Gender Equity in Mathematics Education

Abstract

This volume of essays, Towards Gender Equity in Mathematics Education, has its origins in the October 1993 ICMI Conference, “Gender and Mathematics Education.” About 100 mathematicians and mathematics educators from around the world gathered in Hoor, Sweden, under the auspices of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction, to discuss the welldocumented world-wide gender imbalance in mathematics learning and mathematics-related careers. The Proceedings of this conference are being published under separate cover by the University of Lund Press. Both publications have been undertaken in the hope that they will encourage and inform the efforts being made in many countries to redress this imbalance. The present volume, with one exception, consists of original articles solicited by the Editor to develop further the themes discussed at the ICMI conference. (Elizabeth Fennema’s essay appears in the Conference Proceedings and is included here with the Editors’ permission.) The premise of the ICMI Conference, that there is no physical or intellectual barrier to the participation of women in mathematics, science, and technology, provides the starting point for the analyses presented here. The authors explore the attitudinal and societal reasons for the gender imbalance in these fields and identify potential foci for change, among them curriculum and assessment practices, classroom and school cultures, and teacher education. A major portion of the book is devoted to detailed descriptions of educational systems around the world from the perspective of the role of gender in mathematics. These studies explore three interpretations of the concept of gender equity: (1) as equal opportunity to study mathematics; (2) as equality in mathematics experience in schools and classrooms; and (3) as equal educational outcomes. Part One, General Issues, summarizes and assesses some of the research that has been conducted in the past two decades on gender equity in mathematics education. In “Mathematics, Gender, and Research,” Elizabeth Fennema sets out the parameters for discussion. She reports: “in spite of some indications that achievement differences are becoming smaller — and they were never very large anyway — they still exist in those areas involving the most complex mathematical tasks, particularly as students progress to middle and secondary schools. There are also major differences in participation in mathematics-related careers. Many women, capable of learning the mathematics required, choose to limit their options by not studying mathematics.... Many