Common Beliefs
In the United States, many people believe that only a few "gifted" individuals have "what it takes" to learn math, and that hard work cannot compensate for this. Studies have shown "When asked to explain why some children do better in math than others, Asian children, their teachers, and their parents point to hard work, their American counterparts to ability."
Women mathematicians in the United States have almost always been a minority according to Margaret Murray. Although the exact difference fluctuates with the times as she has explored in her book . "Since 1980, women have earned over 17 percent of the mathematics doctorates.... ". The trends in gender are by no means clear, but perhaps parity is still a way to go. Thus parity will take more work to overcome mathematical anxiety and this is one reason for women in mathematics being role models for younger women.
Read more about this topic: Mathematical Anxiety
Famous quotes containing the words common and/or beliefs:
“Words like “freedom,” “justice,” “democracy” are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)