Mathematics of Sex: How Biology and Society Conspire to Limit Talented Women and Girls

The Mathematics of Sex is a joy to read. Anyone who wants to encourage girls to pursue careers in science and math will find much to cheer about. It should be required reading for parents, teachers, school administrators, guidance counselors, and everyone else who has ever wondered why there are so few female scientists and mathematicians. -- Diane Halpern, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Claremont McKenna College, and Former President, American Psychological Association

This is a powerful, Herculean synthesis of the scientific literature pertaining to the under-representation of women in engineering, science, and technology, and their over-representation in other disciplines. The authors assemble a complex web of information from the bio-social sciences and distill common themes into highly readable prose for those interested in sex differences in educational and occupational choice and performance after choice. Like the topics they seek to understand better, the authors are to be congratulated on crafting a truly outstanding scholarly achievement. --David Lubinski, Ph.D., Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University

Ceci and Williams entice readers to examine their beliefs and ideas about the gender disparities among participants in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. They lead readers through the thicket of contemporary research and highlight the paucity of robust findings. They explain why apparently conflicting results are often moderated by neglected factors and challenge readers to test their views against the current evidence. They enable everyone to come away feeling both more informed and more curious about how future investigations will unfold. -- Marcia Linn, Ph.D., Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley

[The Mathematics of Sex] manages to provide a convincing and comprehensive overview of the substantial body of existing research...it succeeds in presenting a wide range of arguments and balancing up the experimental evidence for and against each one in a clear and unbiased manner. --iSquared

Two groups of people should care about the underrepresentation of women in math-intensive fields: academics and everyone else. In [The Mathematics of Sex: How Biology and Society Conspire to Limit Talented Women and Girls], Stephen J.
Ceci and Wendy M. Williams provide a valuable resource for both audiences. --Science

.. ..Cornell researchers Stephen Ceci and Wendy Williams politely demolish studies that are presented in nsf [National Science Foundation] workshops as settled science. --Forbes

In one stunning critique after another, Ceci and Williams demonstrate that the research at the heart of the gender bias movement is riddled with falacies and inconsistencies....The Mathematics of Sex is getting praise from both sides of the debate. --Washington Post

So why are women still such a minority in math-oriented sciences? The most balanced answer I've seen comes from two psychologists at Cornell, Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams...After reviewing hundreds of studies in their new book, The Mathematics of Sex (Oxford), they conclude that discrimination is no longer an important factor in keeping out women. --John Tierney in the New York Times