Take it and move on. But there was so much fear. Those women soon shunned careers in business or psychology, Kusimo says. You start pushing too many things off your plate and your options are limited. Of course, this problem wasn't limited to the women Kusimo counseled.
Educators say girls develop anxiety about math as they reach adolescence.
This is due, in part, to societal standards that encourage girls to be quiet and boys to be more aggressive. And with that they become more insecure, she says. So it is critical to target middle school girls before they head to high school to prepare them for college and eventually a career, Kusimo says. In 1995, Kusimo and educators in West Virginia aimed to make small but meaningful changes in how girls approach math and science in two of the nation's poorest counties. Voices of Girls in Science, Math and Technology was a three-year educational research project designed to chip away at the gender inequity that leaves young girls fearful and uninterested in math and science.