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The STEM gap is lower in countries with more discrimination against women. > Paradoxically, the sex differences in the magnitude of relative academic strengths

The STEM gap is lower in countries with more discrimination against women. > Paradoxically, the sex differences in the magnitude of relative academic strengths and pursuit of STEM degrees rose with increases in national gender equality. The gap between boys’ science achievement and girls’ reading achievement relative to their mean academic performance was near universal. These sex differences in academic strengths and attitudes toward science correlated with the STEM graduation gap. A mediation analysis suggested that life-quality pressures in less gender-equal countries promote girls’ and women’s engagement with STEM subjects. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797617741719 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797617741719 Male over representation in STEM fields is probably due to their other options being poorer compared to women. Men generally have high math scores only while women with high math scores also have high reading scores. > What they find is that comparative advantage (math ability relative to reading ability) explains math intentions better than actual math or reading ability. Comparative advantage is also a better predictor of math intentions than perceptions of math ability (women do perceive lower math ability relative to true ability than do men but the effect is less important than comparative advantage). In another data set the authors show that math intentions predict math education. > Thus, accumulating evidence shows that over-representation of males in STEM fields is perhaps better framed as under-representation of males in reading fields and the latter is driven by relatively low reading achievement among males. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/09/girls-comparative-advantage-in-reading-can-largely-explain-the-gender-gap-in-math-related-fields.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/09/gi...

danans 7y ago
> The STEM gap is lower in countries with more discrimination against women. > A mediation analysis suggested that life-quality pressures in less gender-equal countries promote girls’ and women’s engagement with STEM subjects. In plain English, this is just saying that STEM is seen by women in those countries as a way to economic advancement, which is why they embrace it at higher rates. This is especially the case in a country like India, which I suspect represents a significant sample of their study. Added to this, despite those countries having higher overall gender discrimination in, they don't share the US's particular cultural tropes (themselves of pretty recent creation) that imply that women are inherently worse at STEM subjects. Indeed, among middle class educated Indian families, expectations of STEM achievement are as high for girls as for boys, evidenced by the large number of Indian women who became doctors even 2 generations ago. That educated middle class population is who the tech worker population is being drawn from, which is why their gender representation in tech shows more parity. The paper referenced confuses the overall population for the sample population. Also, it's not that similar discriminatory tropes don't exist in places like India, but instead of gender, they are projected over other classifications, like language or social class. As a result, the representation of certain linguistic groups and social classes is higher among Indian tech workers, regardless of gender.
- int_19h 7y ago
  Some patriarchal cultures can be curiously two-faced on women: there's a boatload of stereotypes that are attached to femininity, and they generally mirror the social conservative stereotypes in US... but if any particular woman can break through those stereotypes by succeeding in something that she is not "supposed to", that gets acknowledged by basically treating her as a man socially. It is still discriminatory as hell (e.g. social life gets complicated), but in terms of career and business success, that can mask some of the cultural misogyny.

danans 7y ago

> The STEM gap is lower in countries with more discrimination against women. > A mediation analysis suggested that life-quality pressures in less gender-equal countries promote girls’ and women’s engagement with STEM subjects. In plain English, this is just saying that STEM is seen by women in those countries as a way to economic advancement, which is why they embrace it at higher rates. This is especially the case in a country like India, which I suspect represents a significant sample of their study. Added to this, despite those countries having higher overall gender discrimination in, they don't share the US's particular cultural tropes (themselves of pretty recent creation) that imply that women are inherently worse at STEM subjects. Indeed, among middle class educated Indian families, expectations of STEM achievement are as high for girls as for boys, evidenced by the large number of Indian women who became doctors even 2 generations ago. That educated middle class population is who the tech worker population is being drawn from, which is why their gender representation in tech shows more parity. The paper referenced confuses the overall population for the sample population. Also, it's not that similar discriminatory tropes don't exist in places like India, but instead of gender, they are projected over other classifications, like language or social class. As a result, the representation of certain linguistic groups and social classes is higher among Indian tech workers, regardless of gender.

int_19h 7y ago
Some patriarchal cultures can be curiously two-faced on women: there's a boatload of stereotypes that are attached to femininity, and they generally mirror the social conservative stereotypes in US... but if any particular woman can break through those stereotypes by succeeding in something that she is not "supposed to", that gets acknowledged by basically treating her as a man socially. It is still discriminatory as hell (e.g. social life gets complicated), but in terms of career and business success, that can mask some of the cultural misogyny.