Communications of the ACM
For Women to Think Mathematically, Colleges Should Think Creatively
Credit: Ober Gallery
Addressing the U.S. shortage of women in hard sciences requires getting women into a more mathematically inclined mindset, which can be facilitated by more creative thinking by colleges, write Georgia Institute of Technology professor Theodore P. Hill and former California Polytechnic State University professor Erika Rogers. They cite a failure by experts to "connect the dots between creativity, hard sciences, and basic gender differences."
Hill and Rogers refer to broad agreement among experts and lay observers that men achieve more creatively than women. They argue that research on women's dearth of representation in other creative disciplines also may yield insights about their underrepresentation in hard sciences. Research has uncovered greater playfulness, curiosity, and willingness to take risks among men than among women, and suggested ways to instill more creativity in women include setting up playrooms and apportioning time for creative play. Researchers also have suggested creating an "innovation hothouse" that drives the goals of teaching imagination, selecting risky, unconventional solutions, and working through failures as part of the creative process.
"Encouraging a culture of creative opportunity may not directly increase the relative creative achievement of women in the hard sciences . . . but it's worth a try," Hill and Rogers conclude.
From The Chronicle of Higher Education
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