by Ebunoluwa Akinbode
No would be the short answer. There has been a general consensus on the economic and industrial characteristics of a developed nation in comparison to less developed ones. However, advancement in social aspects of society does not always correlate with economic development.
One study reported in Science and Learning discovered a layer of this phenomenon in the STEM field. Researchers studied the brains of children aged 3-10 while engaged in math tasks. They found that there is no difference in the brain activity of areas related to math comprehension between girls and boys. However, in adolescent children, a study found that there were differences in math abilities between males and females. One of the studies that has attempted to make sense of the appearance of this gap found that, beyond gendered disparities in upbringing, the wealth of both a country and a community also plays a factor. They found that less economically developed countries have a higher female participation in STEM.
At the community level, higher income neighborhoods in the U.S have higher rates of female underperformance in math relative to their male counterparts. However, in lower income cities there was not as profound a difference in mathematical performance between genders. In the researchers’ analysis of cultural differences formed by economic conditions, they found that the expectations of a female’s contribution to the economic wellbeing of themselves and/or their families is negatively correlated to the level of wealth. Therefore, lower levels of wealth in women would mean that they felt higher pressure to apply themselves in fields of study that would yield greater economic return as a means to contribute to their families. As a result, women from lower income backgrounds perform better in STEM related subjects despite a gendered upbringing simply because they are being driven by the necessity of economic success.
These findings thus call into question how lesser industrialized nations are regarded. While economic hardship should in no way be glorified, ignoring other categories of development causes us to mislabel certain societies and miss concepts within an issue that help to explain a phenomenon. Therefore, regarding developing countries only by their economic standing paints an incomplete picture.
The research on female participation in STEM comes a unique perspective on why we see the current differences in feminist movements in different areas of the world. Economic necessity can contribute to increased female participation in the labor force. This does not mean that due to this women are inherently regarded as equals in economically disadvantaged societies, however they may carry more economic power and professional prestige than some of their Western counterparts. As a result, gender issues relevant to these communities may differ from those stressed in Western societies. Therefore, a misunderstanding of this can contribute to an assumption that feminism is stunted in the economically developing world.
The conclusions from these studies have also contributed to a deeper understanding of specific aspects of social upbringing that contribute to female marginalization-- especially in the workforce. The analyses in these studies uncovered nuances that can help feminist movements tailor their course of action in reducing male domination in any field. Deeper than the disparities produced from gendered upbringing is the concept that societies that regard female contributions and achievements as supplementary to the “main” male input inadvertently create fields dominated by certain genders.
This realization uncovers an aspect in the debate on cultural rearing that can aid feminist movements by tailoring their work to reducing gender domination in any field. In this way, certain societies can better build corrective measures for the unforeseen negative aspects of stronger economic development that may stunt social development.
Ebunoluwa Akinbode is a GW Scope staff writer and senior editor for the Social Sciences of the George Washington Undergraduate Review journal. She is a sophomore studying International Affairs with a double concentration in Africa and International Development. She is currently a research assistant for Professor Janet Lewis, of the GW Political Science Department, who is conducting research on rebel group formation in Africa. She is a member of the University Honors Program, Alternative Breaks, and the African Student Association.
Comments