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STEM hasn't made serious efforts to counter sexism? That starkly contrasts with my observations. For the entirety of my life (I'm over 25) that I can remember I

STEM hasn't made serious efforts to counter sexism? That starkly contrasts with my observations. For the entirety of my life (I'm over 25) that I can remember I've encountered programs and initiatives working towards getting women into STEM. All of the companies I've worked at instituted hiring policies that favor women (e.g. giving women 2 chances to pass a technical phone screen instead of one). And we're not alone in this. Microsoft and Intel have both instituted policies of witholding bonuses unless diversity quotas are met, and Facebook gives recruiters more points - which count towards performance reviews - for recruiting diverse candidates[1]. 1. https://www.payscale.com/compensation-today/2019/03/tie-bonuses-to-diversity-goals https://www.payscale.com/compensation-today/2019/03/tie-bonu...

foldr 7y ago
These kinds of top-down initiatives are well and good, but the real problem is cultural. You only have to read this discussion to see why women don't want to work in STEM.
- manfredo 7y ago
  Elaborate. What are the "serious efforts" made by medical and law industries that got women into these professions that STEM has not employed? Furthermore, do you care to identify what in this discussion makes it so clear why women would not go into STEM?
  - naasking 7y ago
    > What are the "serious efforts" made by medical and law industries that got women into these professions that STEM has not employed? More than that, what "cultural changes" did they enact? From what I've read of the history, culture only shifted after women achieved rough gender parity. Cultural shifts follow demographic shifts, not vice versa. And even now, gender disparities exist that can't be explained by sexist theories. For instance, why is surgery dominated by men and pediatrics dominated by women? Sexist theories have a lot of holes like these gender disparities within fields and the gender equality paradox that's the subject of this article. And yet, there's a theory that explains all of the data we see: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00189/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.0018... This theory relegates sexism to a minor role, perhaps affecting single digit differences in gender disparities, not the double digits we actually see.
commandlinefan 7y ago
> For the entirety of my life (I'm over 25) Mine, too, and I'm over 45.

foldr 7y ago

These kinds of top-down initiatives are well and good, but the real problem is cultural. You only have to read this discussion to see why women don't want to work in STEM.

manfredo 7y ago
Elaborate. What are the "serious efforts" made by medical and law industries that got women into these professions that STEM has not employed? Furthermore, do you care to identify what in this discussion makes it so clear why women would not go into STEM?
- naasking 7y ago
  > What are the "serious efforts" made by medical and law industries that got women into these professions that STEM has not employed? More than that, what "cultural changes" did they enact? From what I've read of the history, culture only shifted after women achieved rough gender parity. Cultural shifts follow demographic shifts, not vice versa. And even now, gender disparities exist that can't be explained by sexist theories. For instance, why is surgery dominated by men and pediatrics dominated by women? Sexist theories have a lot of holes like these gender disparities within fields and the gender equality paradox that's the subject of this article. And yet, there's a theory that explains all of the data we see: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00189/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.0018... This theory relegates sexism to a minor role, perhaps affecting single digit differences in gender disparities, not the double digits we actually see.

commandlinefan 7y ago

> For the entirety of my life (I'm over 25) Mine, too, and I'm over 45.