Increasing Women's Participation in Mathematics: An Intervention Study

This study reports the evaluation of an educational intervention (Multiplying Options and Subtracting Bias) designed to increase the election of mathematics courses by high school females. A pretest/posttest control group design was used. Females in the experimental group, significantly more than females in the control group, increased their knowledge about sex-related differences in mathematics, indicated that they were going to study more mathematics both during and after high school, and actually enrolled in more mathematics courses. Change in the perception of the usefulness of mathematics for their future lives was significantly related to change in plans for the study of mathematics. The effect of the intervention on male peers, mathematics teachers, and counselors is also reported.