The Onion poll: Girls = Boys at Joanne Jacobs

Published by Joanne July 29th, 2008 in Education. 3 Comments

The Onion’s crack pollsters ask Americans what they think of a new study finding that Girls=Boys in Math scores.

1 Lori Jul 29th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

That was hilarious.
2 Diana Senechal Jul 30th, 2008 at 4:53 am

I, too, used to feel quite manly when attempting linear algebra… until I took it upon myself to knit my friend a scarf with a design of the identity matrix and its permutations. Then I didn’t know what I was any more.
3 Math is Hard Jul 30th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

From http://createdthings.blogspot.com/2005/02/my-barbie-dolls-not-as-dumb-as-your.html

Surely you remember it? Mattel put out a talking version of Barbie that said “Math class is tough!” Not all parents with girls thought that this was cute.

A reporter from the Association for Women in Mathematics interviewed a (female) Mattel executive. The Mattel spokeswoman said that there was no intention to discourage girls from studying math and science. She also said that, since each doll spoke four phrases, and that there were 270 phrases in all of the Barbie dolls, that there was less than a one percent chance that a girl will get a “Math class is tough” Barbie.

When the AWM reporter pointed out that 4 divided by 270 is bigger than one percent, the Mattel executive said “I was never any good at math.”

Thank heavens for GI Joe.

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Joanne Jacobs