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Why don’t European girls like science or technology? (2017)
- neverminder 4y agoBecause women are better with people and men are better with things. A few decades of liberalism can't erase millions of years of evolution no matter what wokers would have you believe.
- hunglee2 4y agovery interesting, love to get an update on this. there is an incongruity that the theoretically more egalitarian the society, the less likely women are to enter STEM career path. I believe there is a much higher proportion of female engineers in India for example, than you might find a European country
- ggeorgovassilis 4y ago> I believe there is a much higher proportion of female engineers in India for example I worked in delivery centres in India and the Philippines and can verify your hypothesis. I asked women colleagues there about their career motivation which was: state-sponsored IT studies, good earning perspective, safe working environment. None quoted interesting topics/career satisfaction as a top reason.
- hunglee2 4y agoI can't find the research piece, but there was also a factor of material benefit - basically, in poorer countries EVERYONE is motivated to gravitate to the highest compensation, whereas in richer countries, there is less of an incentive
- cycomanic 4y agoThe topic is called the STEM gender equality paradox. It was started by paper in 2018 [1] which only really reported on the correlation. I think there is still quite a bit of debate as to the reasons, why this is true. [1] https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0956797617741719 https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0956797617741719
- hunglee2 4y agoexcellent, this is research
- thinkingemote 4y agoI believe that the research paper that the paradox is from expressed it the other way around: It's more like the more oppressive a country is, the more likely women will enter STEM. The reasoning is that in harsher places, women will try to maximize benefits for themselves and family and enter STEM fields.
- danieltanfh95 4y agoSingapore is 48.25% women in STEM vs 28% globally. https://www.ntu.edu.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/powers/ntu_powers_stemgendergapinsingapore.pdf?sfvrsn=a2f34ed0_3/%20NTU_POWERS_STEMGenderGapInSingapore%20.pdf https://www.ntu.edu.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-... However that number drops after graduation until it reaches a low 13.1 percent in management. The fact of the matter is that it isn't the lack of jobs or role models etc that's causing the issue, its the fact that females are worse at handling acute stress which is associated with STEM related jobs. Women require alot more emotional support that would simply be unavailable during a "facts only" argument or discussion. This is also partly why there are so little women in very early stage startups. That being said, women are well suited for companies that have already gone past the initial growth stage, so instead of fighting against how different gender works, it may be better for everyone to focus on what they do best.
- KuiN 4y ago> the fact that females are worse at handling acute stress Do you have a source for this alleged fact?
- Traubenfuchs 4y agoThere are countless studies you can find with a quick google search for stress women men study
- Swenrekcah 4y agoWhile I agree that there are certainly different interests and other various non-nefarious reasons for why we won’t get a 50/50 gender division in all possible fields, I’d suggest you rethink the idea that women can’t handle stress. For one thing, nursing is usually almost exclusively women and I don’t think that can be called a stress free environment.
- DiggyJohnson 4y agoIs significantly more related to physical and emotional stress than the stress of white boarding the next release with your coworker that has tone problems, but is otherwise effective.
- tomcam 4y agoI wonder what would happen if you asked this question inside Google
- ibeckermayer 4y agoYou can ask it, but you’re not allowed to answer it correctly.
- tomcam 4y agoAnalysis: true
- throw_bin_hat 4y agoBecause science and technology is low status grunt work for peasants who are clever. Finance, law, medicine, etc are higher status middle class roles and that's where the aspirational end up.
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- hocuspocus 4y agoModern finance is literally indistinguishable from maths and tech. Law isn't a guaranteed way to a high status career anymore, far from it. Medicine sure. But the initial investment is multiple times that of a tech career, for fairly marginal gains in quality of life (when it isn't actually worse).
- IdiocyInAction 4y agoQuant finance might be indistinguishable, but that‘s still a small portion of finance. Traditional finance is still way more people-oriented.
- chrisseaton 4y agoYeah, technology still isn’t a socially respected job.
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- yrgulation 4y agoI'll drop the bomb and confidently say that soon this question will be rephrased to "why don't people like science or technology". Because there isn't much science in either. The tendency is to move towards assembly lines, where "workers" are expected to chase tickets and churn out features. A slippage in production will quickly be noticed on a story point chart and an eager manager will happily pass on negative reviews and replace the "resource" on a whim. Naturally there are exceptions, but at least the software world is saturated with software to the point where it's become free. Many will be replaced by ai autocomplete functions because their jobs are repetitive and boring and those financing tech know it. So if we want more people in tech we need find and develop new tech areas to generate value. Just like software, in their early stages these will be fun and people will take interest in them until they become the chryslers and fords of yesterday or the facebooks and googles of today. Boring and repetitive.
- hoseja 4y ago“On the other hand, we need girls in STEM in order to stay economically competitive. ... There's the meat of why they are pushing this so hard, they want to drive down wages and seem to think there's an undertapped portion of the peasantry.
- Ekaros 4y agoWouldn't it raise prices on every other sector? As then there is less supply there, thus meaning employers have to pay more?