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How is there any absurdity? If a person is expected to only choose a high paying field, but has two options open: 1. High paying field they don't really like.
by RyanZAG 10y ago
How is there any absurdity?
If a person is expected to only choose a high paying field, but has two options open:
1. High paying field they don't really like.
2. Low paying field they'd love to do.
Then if there are social expectations that someone must make a lot of money, they will generally be forced to choose option 1.
The argument that men are forced by social expectations to choose option 1, and women are more freely able to choose option 2 is not 'absurd'. It may be correct or incorrect and would need some evidence to back it up, but please don't go around labeling positions you don't like as 'absurd'.
- abalone 10y agoYou ignored my explicit spelling out of the absurdity: that it assumes women pursuing certain advanced STEM degrees do so expecting to be financially supported by a man.
- RyanZAG 10y agoThey're not going to need support for themselves with either STEM degree - but they're not going to be able to support a husband and children on a low paying STEM. And nobody would expect them to support a husband. Meanwhile a man would be expected to support a wife and children off his salary. This is the expectations difference you are calling absurd.
- abalone 10y agoIt is not the "expectations difference" that is absurd. It is the notion that highly educated women freely choose to opt out of high paying engineering/CS fields and pursue lower-paying PhDs because they plan on men supporting them. Is there a single shred of evidence to support this? Interviews with female grad students where they spell out this plan of theirs, etc.? Of course not. Meanwhile, tons of evidence around sexist cultures in engineering and CS. [1] [1] see for example Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing (MIT Press) http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Women-Computing-Press/dp/0262632691 http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Women-Computing-Pr...
- Chris2048 10y ago> because they plan on men supporting them You added the idea of conscious planning. Replace "plan on supporting them" with "higher probability of getting support". > tons of evidence around sexist cultures in engineering and CS This has no bearing on the above claim though, does it? That men have a higher risk of being able to find a partner capable and willing on supporting them financially.
- gozur88 10y agoThat's not necessarily true. It could just be that a woman's expectations are a potential husband earns above a certain amount of money, while men don't place the same value on a woman's earnings.