Description

The question about girls’ attainment in mathematics is met with every kind of myth, false “evidence”, and theorizing about the gendered body and the genedered mind. The “Girls and Mathematics Unit” led by Valerie Walkerdine has, over a period of ten years, carried out a detailed theoretical and empirical investigation in this area. Based on research, the book tackles issues and truisms, such as “women are irrational, illogical and to close too their emotions to be any good at mathematics” and examines and puts into perspective these and other claims that have been made about women’s minds. It analyzes the relationship between evidence and explanation: why are girls still taken to be lacking when they perform well, and boys credited even when they perform poorly?