In “Mean Girls,” when Cady Heron, played by Lindsay Lohan, joins her school’s math competition team, she finds herself the only girl. Likewise, while Aragon Pre-Calculus classrooms are relatively gender-balanced, there is an average 13:9 boys to girls ratio in Calculus BC, and a 17:7 ratio in Multivariable Calculus.
A male-dominated gender divide is evident in advanced Aragon mathematics classrooms.
Sophomore Kelvin Yang explains, “I think advanced math classes are generally male dominated because males are more pressured and expected to be strong in STEM and are more ‘cultivated’ towards the field.”
Girls are underrepresented in more than just math classes. Nationally, according to the College Board, boys outnumber girls 4:1 among all 2014 AP Computer Science (APCS) test takers. At Aragon, the APCS class has 25 boys and 7 girls.
In 2011, the American Sociological Association reported that female engineering students lack “professional role confidence.” In other words, they do not have enough confidence in themselves to be professional engineers, even if they may be smarter than their male counterparts.
Sophomore Tara Arcia says, “I don’t think the advanced STEM classes are male-dominated for no reason; us girls are taught at a young age to question ourselves, definitely at a greater extent than boys.”
Sophomore Adeline Yu has a different perspective. “When I went to the AP informational meeting, there were actually a lot of girls. I don’t feel like there is a reason for girls to feel intimidated from taking a programming and technology course. I think the idea of tackling computer coding as a high school hobby just doesn’t appeal to most girls’ interests.”
This gender imbalance is not exclusive to STEM classes; another male-dominated course is AP American Government and Politics with 42 boys and 24 girls.
On the other hand, US News reports that girls generally exceed men in more creative subjects such as english, theater, psychology, and biology.
At Aragon, art elective classroom ratios generally align with this claim. Art 1-2 has a 9:14 boy to girl ratio. In addition, there is a 47:69 boy to girl ratio in AP English Language and Composition, a 37:63 ratio in AP Psychology and a 2:7 ratio in Advanced Theater.
Meanwhile, digital photography has a balanced 1:1 ratio, but Art of Video, a new class this year, has a 3:1 boy to girl ratio. Modern social factors could have caused this gender imbalance.
Nicholas Carrillo, who teaches both classes, explains, “Boys are more inclined to be technologically savvy, potentially because they use the computer more than girls at the adolescent age, and therefore are exposed to more video games and editing software programs. Girls aren’t getting the social support of ‘it’s cool to be in front of a computer.’”
Two other elective courses, Food and Nutrition and Culinary Arts, have 73 boys and 54 girls.
Sophomore Sabina Wallace says, “Food and Nutrition requires patience, and for one to pay close attention to detail, which is a quality that doesn’t get associated with boys a lot. I didn’t think that guys liked to cook—especially when they are expected to do hands-on work.”
Aragon’s Leadership class, the Associated Student Body positions, and Class Councils have also been female-dominant throughout previous years, although current rally commissioner and senior Savanna Cyr has noticed a certain pattern.
“Throughout my sophomore and junior year in leadership, males were in charge of the rally commission. Last year’s rally was my very first time organizing and presenting the rally all by myself,” Cyr says. “I learned that most students would rather listen to a male’s voice in a microphone rather than a woman’s voice. I thought that was quite interesting because I couldn’t tell the difference to why a man would have the ‘better’ voice and why a man would have the ability to grab the attention of an audience better than a woman.”
Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, class ratios seem to change over time. There are 13 boys and 22 girls in AVID 1-2, 10 boys and 23 girls in 3-4, 16 boys and 17 girls in 5-6, and four boys and 18 girls in 7-8.
AVID teacher Don Bush has noticed that the number of boys taking AVID tends to decrease between sophomore and junior year, whereas more girls tend to stay in the class all four years of high school. Bush explains, “There are many reasons why the boy to girl ratio would [shift.] In some cases, boys discontinue when their friends talk them out of AVID or they have an priority in extracurricular activities such as sports.”
In music classes, the ratio may parallel the type of instrument the student chooses to play. Wind Ensemble has 32 boys and 14 girls, while Symphonic Band has 20 boys and 15 girls. Band teacher Troy Davis says, “There are certain instruments that students tend to gravitate to depending on their gender; there are more girls who play the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn, while more boys play drums and percussion, trumpet, trombone, and tuba.”
“The gender ratio doesn’t impact our common purpose as students and musicians, because we come together to create music and it only matters that our sound is great,” says sophomore Wind Ensemble trumpet player Matt Chinn.
Ultimately, a gender divide is a result of many factors and cannot be attributed to one trait. “A gender divide can create unnecessary educational pressure, but every student is different and you have to also consider other social factors such as age and differences in an individual’s personal interests,” says senior Manuel Huerta.
