6 ms·

The article is about women in STEM in Academia, not just STEM. And I don't understand why people absolutely need to have biological children. I think more peop

by deyouz 7y ago

The article is about women in STEM in Academia, not just STEM. And I don't understand why people absolutely need to have biological children. I think more people should just adopt if they want to raise children. I also think sexism in the US is the biggest factor for women leaving Academia or not entering STEM. In other countries more than 50% of the researchers are women and 40% of the students studying computer science are women.

larrik 7y ago
> I think more people should just adopt if they want to raise children. As someone who has adopted 3 children, I assure you that the biological route is way easier and cheaper. It's not like rescuing a dog from the pound...
- pgeorgi 7y ago
  Except for birth and family planning related complications that are minimized in exactly the time frame where career effects tend to compound (or so the article seems to claim)
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
cortesoft 7y ago
The desire for biological children is pretty ingrained in our psyche.
tathougies 7y ago
There are few infants to adopt due to the success of americas adoption programs and the willingness of americans to adopt. The ones that are 'easy' to adopt almost universally have special needs that most people (especially working parents) simply cannot meet.
icandoit 7y ago
>And I don't understand why people absolutely need to have biological children. Consider these possibilities: 1. A best case scenario is that what you have expressed is a personal opinion that takes your genes out of the future in a Marty McFly fading away fashion as this opinion hardens. Fine. Your choice. More pie for the rest of us. 2. A worst case scenario where this opinion accumulates in the market place of ideas and inevitably leads to human extinction. Impossible right? Well, know that disgust with sex is climbing in rich nations (like Germany and Japan) and the number of births per woman is falling. Is this a function of wealth, or technology? South Korea has fewer than 1.1 births per woman. That can only translate into a poorer, older, and smaller country for the future. [1] https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/KOR/south-korea/fertility-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/KOR/south-korea/fertil... (I tell people that this was the thickly veiled premise of the movie Bird Box.) If that is true, then can it be called a choice? Are people actually choosing to have fewer sexual partners than their parents generation? Are people really choosing to feel disgust at the thought of intimate contact? Maybe repulsion-to-sex is a bigger threat to continued human existence as nuclear weapons. Another fun article: https://medium.com/migration-issues/how-long-until-were-all-amish-268e3d0de87 https://medium.com/migration-issues/how-long-until-were-all-...
- yorwba 7y ago
  > that disgust with sex is climbing in rich nations Source? People are having fewer children, but is that because they are too disgusted to have sex?
  - icandoit 7y ago
    Nearly half of young women in Japan are "uninterested in sex" or "averse to sex" - https://www.rt.com/news/377342-sexless-japanese-marriages-study/ https://www.rt.com/news/377342-sexless-japanese-marriages-st... - https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/23/aziz-ansari/startling-stat-checks-out-46-percent-young-women-j/ https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/23... I remember seeing a similar headline for German women but cannot find a source now. (I think people expect weird think from Japan so it's good practice to compare to other countries) Maybe social media and instant communication has replaced (or dulled) some of, what used to be, our sexual appetites. Half the world is sub-replacement-rate: "As of 2010, about 48% (3.3 billion people) of the world population lives in nations with sub-replacement fertility" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-replacement_fertility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-replacement_fertility What statistics should I look for the document disinterest in sex?
dmitrygr 7y ago
Because many traits people care about (like intelligence), have been shown to be at least partially genetic?
sprash 7y ago
> And I don't understand why people absolutely need to have biological children. Especially smart women in STEM should have children because cognitive abilities like intelligence and conscientiousness are largely inherited traits (e.g. IQ is between 50% and 80% inherited according to twin studies).

by deyouz 7y ago

larrik 7y ago

> I think more people should just adopt if they want to raise children. As someone who has adopted 3 children, I assure you that the biological route is way easier and cheaper. It's not like rescuing a dog from the pound...

pgeorgi 7y ago
Except for birth and family planning related complications that are minimized in exactly the time frame where career effects tend to compound (or so the article seems to claim)
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

cortesoft 7y ago

The desire for biological children is pretty ingrained in our psyche.

tathougies 7y ago

There are few infants to adopt due to the success of americas adoption programs and the willingness of americans to adopt. The ones that are 'easy' to adopt almost universally have special needs that most people (especially working parents) simply cannot meet.

icandoit 7y ago

>And I don't understand why people absolutely need to have biological children. Consider these possibilities: 1. A best case scenario is that what you have expressed is a personal opinion that takes your genes out of the future in a Marty McFly fading away fashion as this opinion hardens. Fine. Your choice. More pie for the rest of us. 2. A worst case scenario where this opinion accumulates in the market place of ideas and inevitably leads to human extinction. Impossible right? Well, know that disgust with sex is climbing in rich nations (like Germany and Japan) and the number of births per woman is falling. Is this a function of wealth, or technology? South Korea has fewer than 1.1 births per woman. That can only translate into a poorer, older, and smaller country for the future. [1] https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/KOR/south-korea/fertility-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/KOR/south-korea/fertil... (I tell people that this was the thickly veiled premise of the movie Bird Box.) If that is true, then can it be called a choice? Are people actually choosing to have fewer sexual partners than their parents generation? Are people really choosing to feel disgust at the thought of intimate contact? Maybe repulsion-to-sex is a bigger threat to continued human existence as nuclear weapons. Another fun article: https://medium.com/migration-issues/how-long-until-were-all-amish-268e3d0de87 https://medium.com/migration-issues/how-long-until-were-all-...

yorwba 7y ago
> that disgust with sex is climbing in rich nations Source? People are having fewer children, but is that because they are too disgusted to have sex?
- icandoit 7y ago
  Nearly half of young women in Japan are "uninterested in sex" or "averse to sex" - https://www.rt.com/news/377342-sexless-japanese-marriages-study/ https://www.rt.com/news/377342-sexless-japanese-marriages-st... - https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/23/aziz-ansari/startling-stat-checks-out-46-percent-young-women-j/ https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/23... I remember seeing a similar headline for German women but cannot find a source now. (I think people expect weird think from Japan so it's good practice to compare to other countries) Maybe social media and instant communication has replaced (or dulled) some of, what used to be, our sexual appetites. Half the world is sub-replacement-rate: "As of 2010, about 48% (3.3 billion people) of the world population lives in nations with sub-replacement fertility" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-replacement_fertility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-replacement_fertility What statistics should I look for the document disinterest in sex?

dmitrygr 7y ago

Because many traits people care about (like intelligence), have been shown to be at least partially genetic?

sprash 7y ago

> And I don't understand why people absolutely need to have biological children. Especially smart women in STEM should have children because cognitive abilities like intelligence and conscientiousness are largely inherited traits (e.g. IQ is between 50% and 80% inherited according to twin studies).