4 ms·

Philip Greenspun wrote a good essay on the subject. http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science

• stcredzero 17y ago
  From Greenspun's article: Having been both a student and teacher at MIT, my personal explanation for men going into science is the following: - young men strive to achieve high status among their peer group - men tend to lack perspective and are unable to step back and ask the question "is this peer group worth impressing?" Though, I would say that the ability to impress a peer group is often strongly correlated with the ability to attract mates. Hence, we have an evolutionary weakness for wanting to impress our peers. Unfortunately, there are peer groups whose impression is negatively correlated with attracting mates.
  • jgrahamc 17y ago
    Oh yeah. Totally. Being a science nerd at high school made me real popular with my peers.
    • yummyfajitas 17y ago
      I think it's pretty clear that being a science nerd did make you popular with your peers: http://www.jgc.org/blog/2010/01/how-i-got-50000-page-views-by-simply.html http://www.jgc.org/blog/2010/01/how-i-got-50000-page-views-b... Greenspun's claim is that you probably overvalue this popularity, whereas women disproportionately would not.
      • jgrahamc 17y ago
        But those people weren't my peers at the time.
  • krakensden 17y ago
    > men tend to lack perspective and are unable to step back and ask the question "is this peer group worth impressing?" That's not just a male problem, it's just a different set of peer groups.
  • billybob 17y ago
    Re-read both of those criteria, substituting 'women.' Now recall the sorority system. I think everyone strives for status, and don't see any evidence that women are better than men at deciding who to impress. What may be different is WHAT is considered impressive.
• wmf 17y ago
  That seems pretty specific to academia, though.