Dd is the only girl in her AS Further Maths class - what could the school do to support her?

[ralgex]

Needless to say, she feels intimidated, and doesn't ask the questions she needs to. I feel she has to be given a chance to talk regularly to a teacher about how it affects her, and a chance to ask the questions she daren't raise in class. Anyone got any examples of support for female mathematicians in a co-ed school, please?

[JustRichmal]

Chased Do you think there will ever be an end to maths being seem as a boys subject or is this sexism so ingrained in every culture that there will never be an end to it?

To the OP I would say encourage your daughter to continue. There are lots of online resources if she is not following the class lesson and does not want to ask in class, such as Khan Academy. I did a STEM subject and being in a minority did not really bother me, but everyone is different.

I did my degree back in the eighties and felt I was on the vanguard of women going into science. How depressing to find nothing has changed.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

No one's giving her a kicking. Just asking why it's apparently inevitable that her dd would feel this way in a class full of boys and wondering exactly, when she's reached the age of 16/17 unable to cope with boys, what she expects a teacher who's had her half a term to be able to do.

[TheWordFactory]

carriads the tenor of the thread is that the problem here lies with the girl.

Or perhaps her mother.

[TheWordFactory]

giles all the research into my STEM is male dominated fully accept the difficulties women face.

[TheFairyCaravan]

DS2 is the only boy in his A2 Sociology class, it was the same at AS. Last year he was the only boy in his tutor group, too. When he goes to university, there might be 2 or 3 other males on the course, but that's it.

He doesn't feel intimidated or uncomfortable, as someone said upthread, his friendship group is mixed now (has been for a few years). They just get on with it, like every other lesson.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

But it may well have nothing to do with the actual subject.
What if it was something else. If her dd can't cope being in a group of boys that's not ten teacher or the subjects fault is it.

[Notinaminutenow]

Oh Giles it is obviously not inevitable but there is many a 16/17 year old girl "unable to cope with boys" and vice versa.

Give thanks for your super confident, nothing fazes them teens. Aren't you great, aren't they great.

Consider though, if you can factor the time in amongst the smugness, that people are not all the same.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

There were 2 boys out of 50 on my college course.

[CariadsDarling]

In answer to TheWordFactory -

My stance as a mum is that approaching a problem from a few different angles means that when we do suss out the actual reason for a problem we can act on it.

[AuntieStella]

I have looked across as my geeky, nerdy teen who will be doing further maths. And am immensely saddened that he is seen by some as a problem simply by being male in a classroom.

OP needs to provide more information. Has her DD just joined this school from a single sex school? Or are these boys she has known since year 7? How many in the class (further maths classes are often tiny)?

Has the DD described any specific incidents? Who would be responsible for tacking them. If she doesn't know, can you help her find out?

Is she aware of how pastoral support works in her sixth form (may be different to elsewhere in a school)? Is she seeking support? I can't give examples of specific support to mathematicians, but there should be a range of staff with support responsibilities/experience available to all pupils for any reason. Has she spoken to any about any part of this?

(In the short term, tell her to write her unanswered questions at the end of a homework).

[Gileswithachainsaw]

The point is its inevitable the balance won't always be great in work places or educational establishments.

Surely it's not unreasonable to expect the people involved to take some responsibility in encouraging each other and preparing each other for the possibility rather than putting it down to teachers. They can't help the make up of the class.

[EmbarrassedPossessed]

The first step is to speak to the teacher - they need to know that the DD is intimidated out of asking questions/commenting. Although if they haven't spotted it by mid Nov I would be worried about the effectiveness of their classroom management. But the issue needs to be clearly and specifically raised with the teacher. If they can't or won't improve on the classroom atmosphere the Ralgex can pursue it further with the school.

In the meantime her thoughts about mentoring are a good idea - ask the head of sixth form if anything exists. Do they have a STEM coordinator that could investigate schemes/clubs/courses etc?

[Fairenuff]

OP can you be specific about what behaviours the boys are demonstrating towards your dd that make her feel intimidated?

We might be able to help if we know a bit more. You will probably have to take it up with the school if they are using sexist language towards her or are bullying her.

[Betsy003]

Just to add as well as improving DDs confidence, email TGF teacher and explain that she I'd struggling with her being the only female in the class - just to make the teacher aware

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I'm glad to see the conversation has moved onto the shortage of girls taking STEM subjects because this clearly is an issue and schools are doing themselves and the girls a huge disservice if they aren't encouraging more to take them.

Part of it is a social thing I think. In general I think girls are very sociable at this age and it does take a bit of extra something to choose subjects where you aren't going to be starting off with friends.

I think people were taking umbrage at the OPs phrasing of 'needless to say' because of course there are those of us who didn't find it an issue. I think one thing we should be doing is congratulating the OPs dd in having taken the decision to stand out from the crowd.

So what can schools do to encourage more girls to take STEM subjects? I don't know. I think a mentor is a good step. That could be an A2 female student (it would certainly look good on their cv!). Dd's school takes year 10 girls to a science day but this year they had to cancel it due to not enough interest. :( More female teachers teaching a levels would be ace but of course they need to exist in the first place.

[JustRichmal]

I do not accept there is nothing teachers can do about the make up of the class. If out of an equal amount of girls and boys coming in at year 7 only a tiny minority of those progressing onto advanced maths are girls, you really need to look at what you are doing wrong.

As a school they should be asking some questions:

Why are girls not seeing Stem subjects as a career path?
Are girls getting the impression only boys are good at maths?
And, most relevant to the OP. What difficulties are girls who are choosing the STEM subjects facing and what is being done to support them in the hopes of redressing the imbalance?

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

I do feel for the DD, who is very young, but we can't really give any useful advice without knowing whether the problem comes from specific behaviour/attitudes of the boys, or the teacher, or a pervading set of assumptions in the school, or whether it's mostly related to the DD's personal insecurities (perfectly natural to have personal insecurities at that age). A good school can certainly help with all four but they requires different tactics.

There's a classic experiment where girls who have to state their gender before taking their maths test perform worse, so even though I call the DD's insecurities "personal", they are clearly widely shared and societally determined. But sadly, in the absence of an overthrow of the patriarchy before her exam date, her best personal strategy may be to work on the rhinoceros-hide tactics that others on the thread (myself included) have mastered - along with an appeal to the school for consideration and addressing any specific identified external behaviours.

[KatieKaye]

The assumption up thread that the teacher is male is quite strange, IMO. My school had more female maths teachers than male. Without any evidence why assume the teacher is male?

Is DD keeping up with the course? Could it be that the work is too challenging and that is the actual problem but it's easier to blame it on the class composition?

[Bonsoir]

It's extremely unpleasant to be the lone girl or lone boy in a class or an office or anything really.

[Takver]

"But what can the teacher do? She had no part in determining the gender of the applicants for the course and is powerless to change it."

I was the only girl in my A level English class - the teacher spoke to me about this at the start of the course, made it clear that he was there to help, and that I should raise any problems with him straight away.

As it happens, I was the sort of teenage girl who could and would cheerfully intimidate 8 teenage boys into silence just for the fun of it But had I been a different personality, I'm sure I would have found his approach helpful and supportive.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

OP, please come back and tell us more specifically what DD's problems are. There are lots of women on this thread who have been the only female in sixth form or degree classes, there is a lot of experience here to draw on. The very fact that many didn't find it problematic may mean that they have useful advice as to why that was so for them and what helped.

[AuntieStella]

"The assumption up thread that the teacher is male is quite strange, IMO. My school had more female maths teachers than male. Without any evidence why assume the teacher is male?"

Extrapolation from OP's post of 00:50:28, which doesn't say specifically that the teacher is male, but as a female teacher would need to be sought out it's not an unreasonable inference that the one her DD sees routinely is not female.

[Camolips]

How about splitting for some GCSE subjects? Dd2's school split the top two English sets into a boy set and girl set, primarily because more boys were failing to reach their targets and not taking it at AS and the result was an improvement not just for the boys but the girls too. Dd2 said that they could discuss books without sniggers from the boys although previously she hadn't realised it was a problem.
If this was an option for Maths maybe more girls would be encouraged to take it at AS? Just a thought.

[ChasedByBees]

I think the problem of girls not taking STEM subjects starts at toddler age and early school years up to primary.

A lot of women I know are so into encouraging their daughters to be princesses as discouraging them from things they view as 'boys things'.

Without early role models girls won't even consider this as an option open to them so the science activities aimed at encouraging 14 year olds to do science comes far too late - a mindset has already been firmly engrained by then. Just look at the (now removed) Clarks shoes displays for children: it was some thing like, "we make our boys shoes for climbing and exploring. We make our girls shoes to look pretty."

There is an strong message to girls that they shouldn't explore and try and work things out which is the basis of science, maths and engineering. Once it's learnt at an early age it's extremely hard to overcome.

Science outreach needs to start in nurseries and infant schools in my opinion.