couple thoughts about math & feminism

as it seems almost certain i will be pursuing graduate study in mathematics of finance this fall my mind wandered back in time wondering how i got to this point. then i thought about the gender make up of my class. then i thought of a hapless larry summers. why is it that the class i will join will probably be overwhelmingly male? i tend to agree with the science that speculates that the endogenous variables responsible for the predominance of males among the autistic population are correlated with the substantial number of male outliers at both tail ends of the math performance spectrum.

why is it wrong to speculate there may exist a handful more men than women predisposed to be math virtuosos? it must be wrong in the same way that it is "wrong" to speculate that african males will be faster than caucasian males because of the physiology of their muscle tissue, or that ashkenazis will fill the ranks of great physicists because of sphingolipid mutations in the brain whose effects can range from heightened intelligence to peculiar neurological diseases. there are always differences between genders and ethnic cluster groups. we should not shy away from discussing differences so long as we first build the foundations of equality of opportunity for all and address the unjust initial conditions of the past.

why should it matter so much if men outnumbered the women in a math department? well a large portion of that discrepancy derives from the sexist paternalistic culture of the past (and present?) which deprived women of the opportunity to progress to that level of studies. it is only fair to rectify such past injustice. but one must also consider: why didn't such an all pervading male culture hold back those women who DID succeed? there must have been a factor of motivation strong enough to drive these women to transcend the ceiling placed above them. in this light i believe that if women today are to truly conquer the territory of mathematical sciences that was once kept out of their reach they cannot do it just by ability; there must also be that complete and utter compulsion to the field which sustains esoteric pursuit.

mathematics at an advanced level is such a pursuit and calls for a coupling of the requisite ability with a thorough and almost obsessive enjoyment of the subject matter. what i have seen in my experience is that women have the ability but seem to lack the level of enjoyment of problem solving in mathematical systems. the last time i brought up a topic very math-y in nature at a bar in new york it took off on many tangents amongst my male friends but was quickly yawned away amongst my female friends (most of whom have strong feminist ideals and would love to see larry summers hung). i found it unfortunate that such a cliched thing would happen amongst the girls because it is indicative of an underlying superficiality, that which often accompanies the evolution of a righteous cause into a commitment to lip serviced slogan-ism. "the number of women amongst math faculty should be equal to the number of men!" that math will only work out if there is an equal number of women who prefer calculus over america's next top model.

the male of man

untamed fight in his muscle
fear beneath the feral growls
violence of spirit and purpose
lust heaving to in every bated breath

armor to harden the heartbeat
swords to sharpen his reason
love hangs at the tip of his tongue
washed down with a frothy grog of rage