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Gender and Mathematics: An International Perspective edited by Leone
Burton, Cassell Education, pp 162, £16.95 pbk

It remains a man’s world – at least as far as mathematics is concerned.
Gender and Mathematics is an international collection of research reports
showing that the ‘queen of the sciences’ remains a masculine domain. The
various contributions to this volume resulted from the presentations of
the Women and Mathematics Topic Area at the Sixth International Congress
on Mathematics Education held in Budapest, Hungary in 1988. They show that
researchers and educationalists do not agree on how to monitor the extent
and form of this inequality nor on their recommendations for rectifying
it.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the picture which emerges is that
it leaves little space for a simple faith that there has been, and will
continue to be, progress in this area. There are too many signs of interruptions
in any would-be forward march to equality in mathematics: as computer work
has gone upmarket, men have become more prominent in this field; women’s
achievement in examinations in Oxbridge colleges has declined since the
advent of mixed colleges; and the percentage of female graduates continuing
towards a further degree in mathematics in New Zealand has declined since
1972. It is little wonder that the editor, Leone Burton, wants to distinguish
between what she labels ‘an equal opportunities intent’ and the achievement
of greater equality.

Yet there is no unanimity among the contributors about strategies for
change. One frustrating feature of a collection such as this is that the
contradictions and disagreements only get fought out in the reader’s head.
I would have liked more dialogue, more exchange within the volume itself.
For example, Pat Rogers’s interesting study of one form of higher education
in the US in which women have been relatively successful, potentially pulls
the rug out from under many recent strategies and experiments in this field.
In this instance, at least, the success comes despite the fact that there
‘has been no particular effort to attract female students and no specific
adaptations to meet their perceived special needs’. What would the other
authors in the volume who have been involved in special programmes to engage
female students make of this?

There is something worthy about this volume. Certainly, the international
dimension of the collection is welcome, with its attention to complexity
and context specificity. And the full documentation of various aspects of
gender relations in teaching mathematics is needed, and some of that is
provided. However, there are limits to how far a worthy project will travel.
In this case, I would predict that the book will appeal only to the already
converted.

I would also suggest that there has been too much concern with quantity
here: numbers of countries represented, the range of techniques for research
and varieties of approaches. The result is a book that is unlikely to grab
those not already committed to the cause of greater equality within mathematics
education.

Unfortunately, few of the authors seemed conscious of their own pedagogic
methods and styles. So some articles are as dry and uninspiring as some
of the mathematics teaching that others condemn. Still, there are some gems
amidst the dust. Heleen Verhage’s fascinating story of the Dutch teacher
who taught mathematics through embroidery captivated me. The reactions to
his experiment were rich testimonials to the gender divisions which haunt
so much mathematics teaching. One girl commented: ‘This isn’t maths . .
. This is sewing class.’ ‘When you have to draw a circle you don’t call
it drawing class, do you?’ was the teacher’s acute response. A boy inquired:
‘Will we be tested on this?’ ‘Let the boys flunk for once’ was one girl’s
possibly vengeful reply. Experiments such as these should be talking points
for students, teachers and educational administrators. Despite its merits,
this is not a book which is likely to make that happen.

Maureen McNeil is a senior lecturer in the Cultural Studies Department
at the University of Birmingham.