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The obsession with math education in East Asian countries is not without its cost. These countries all have a terrible gender gap in educational attainment and

The obsession with math education in East Asian countries is not without its cost. These countries all have a terrible gender gap in educational attainment and economic earnings. Women get marginalized before they even graduate high school. Given that female per capita earnings in the US are higher than all countries except Norway and Luxembourg, I can't help but think our system is doing something right. I am not sure this directly relates to sports, but something about our system is creating the world's most successful women.

tokenadult 13y ago
These countries all have a terrible gender gap in educational attainment and economic earnings. I call b___s___ on that, having lived in one of those countries, and invite you to produce statistics backing up your statement. The East Asian country I know best, Taiwan, has had more female than male participation in higher education for at least a generation, and generally has equal pay for equal work and plenty of female access to professional occupations. The same is surely true of Singapore, a country many of my friends live in. I cannot attribute any remaining gender inequality in that country or other countries to an emphasis on strong mathematics education--to the contrary, helping elementary pupils get a good background in mathematics probably helps women cope with the tough issue that they deal with, having to do more to reproduce the next generation than men have to do.
- jcampbell1 13y ago
  You are quite right. I was thinking about Japan/Korea, and some statistics I had looked up years ago. I can't find any information on Taiwan, but have a look a some of the gender equality for Japan/Korea. The numbers are quite abysmal. On the other hand Singapore is top of the world. See: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2012.pdf http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2012.pdf p.224 Japan ,p.232 Korea, p.358 US, p.318 Singapore. It seems the problem is isolated to Japan and Korea, and likely has nothing to do with sports, math education, nor East-Asia.
- w1ntermute 13y ago
  I think that Chinese culture is less patriarchal than Korean and Japanese culture, which is the reason for Taiwan being like you say. In South Korea and Japan, the situation is very different.

tokenadult 13y ago

These countries all have a terrible gender gap in educational attainment and economic earnings. I call b___s___ on that, having lived in one of those countries, and invite you to produce statistics backing up your statement. The East Asian country I know best, Taiwan, has had more female than male participation in higher education for at least a generation, and generally has equal pay for equal work and plenty of female access to professional occupations. The same is surely true of Singapore, a country many of my friends live in. I cannot attribute any remaining gender inequality in that country or other countries to an emphasis on strong mathematics education--to the contrary, helping elementary pupils get a good background in mathematics probably helps women cope with the tough issue that they deal with, having to do more to reproduce the next generation than men have to do.

jcampbell1 13y ago
You are quite right. I was thinking about Japan/Korea, and some statistics I had looked up years ago. I can't find any information on Taiwan, but have a look a some of the gender equality for Japan/Korea. The numbers are quite abysmal. On the other hand Singapore is top of the world. See: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2012.pdf http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2012.pdf p.224 Japan ,p.232 Korea, p.358 US, p.318 Singapore. It seems the problem is isolated to Japan and Korea, and likely has nothing to do with sports, math education, nor East-Asia.
w1ntermute 13y ago
I think that Chinese culture is less patriarchal than Korean and Japanese culture, which is the reason for Taiwan being like you say. In South Korea and Japan, the situation is very different.