Math is Language: A Metaphor-Based Intervention to Promote Women's Interest in Math

Abstract

Despite STEM’s growth, women are vastly underrepresented in STEM employment. Women fill almost half of all jobs in the US, yet they only occupy 25 percent of all STEM employment (Beede et al., 2011). This discrepancy between the number of women in the US workforce and the number of women currently in STEM employment is referred to as the STEM gender gap. Researchers have identified many barriers to women’s pursuit of STEM in academic settings, including instructor expectations of fixed intelligence; a lack of female role models; gender stereotyping; and perceived values mismatch (Beede et al., 2011; Ginther & Kahn, 2015). The goal of the current research is to highlight an overlooked barrier to STEM—women’s conceptions of math —and create a metaphor-framing intervention to address it. Conceptual metaphor theory posits that metaphor is a tool for thought and not just a tool for speech. Metaphors help us understand abstract concepts by relating them to other, more concrete, concepts (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The present study used the metaphor “Math is language” to make math feel more approachable by reducing math anxiety among all students. Additionally, metaphor helped students see the potential for math to be a flexible tool for thought and expression; reflecting how language is often thought of (Haave, 2015; Manery, 2007). Surprisingly, both the “Math is language” metaphor and the “College math is high school math” metaphor displayed these benefits. This research suggests that metaphor can help make math more approachable for all students, not just women.