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Direct discrimination is not always the primary cause, sometimes there is a self-selection issue caused by broader societal or cultural issues. But yes, in nurs

Direct discrimination is not always the primary cause, sometimes there is a self-selection issue caused by broader societal or cultural issues. But yes, in nursing for example, there is no inherent reason for the 90/10 women/men gender split in the US, and we should aim to equalize that. I don't know what causes it, probably some combination of discrimination by employers and patients, and cultural norms that discourage men from pursuing nursing. Also, given that the split of working-age humans is quite close to 50/50, if we successfully equalize male-dominated industries, we would expect female-dominated industries to also equalize just because of the available employees. As in, we shouldn't just consider each industry in isolation, they're all part of one big society, and they all impact each other.

reducesuffering 3y ago
You don't see any possibility that the 90/10 split is in some part due to each genders' preferences, in general? You don't think that, in general, women prefer more social careers and less staring at a screen for 8 hours? For example, men are well established to be physically stronger in general, so fields requiring heavy manual labor like parts of construction requiring a certain level of strength, will naturally favor men. All else equal, this pulls men from other fields so that the other fields would be like 52/48 women/men. Of course things aren't equal and we see an amalgamation of different factors, some preferential, some physical, some discriminatory, leading to imbalanced outcomes. But remove the discriminatory and that doesn't mean you get 50/50. If not, then by a purely discriminatory worldview, men are severely discriminated against in higher education by their low college attendance rates.
- burkaman 3y ago
  > You don't think that, in general, women prefer more social careers and less staring at a screen for 8 hours? I don't think there's any biological reason for that, and if it's true I think it's due to mostly contrived cultural factors that are themselves caused by historical discrimination. > If not, then by a purely discriminatory worldview, men are severely discriminated against in higher education by their low college attendance rates. Yes, I'm not fighting you on this, I don't know who you're arguing with. There used to be a male bias in college admissions, now there is a female bias. There is clearly no biological explanation, so it must be due to the discrimination and cultural factors I described.

reducesuffering 3y ago

You don't see any possibility that the 90/10 split is in some part due to each genders' preferences, in general? You don't think that, in general, women prefer more social careers and less staring at a screen for 8 hours? For example, men are well established to be physically stronger in general, so fields requiring heavy manual labor like parts of construction requiring a certain level of strength, will naturally favor men. All else equal, this pulls men from other fields so that the other fields would be like 52/48 women/men. Of course things aren't equal and we see an amalgamation of different factors, some preferential, some physical, some discriminatory, leading to imbalanced outcomes. But remove the discriminatory and that doesn't mean you get 50/50. If not, then by a purely discriminatory worldview, men are severely discriminated against in higher education by their low college attendance rates.

burkaman 3y ago
> You don't think that, in general, women prefer more social careers and less staring at a screen for 8 hours? I don't think there's any biological reason for that, and if it's true I think it's due to mostly contrived cultural factors that are themselves caused by historical discrimination. > If not, then by a purely discriminatory worldview, men are severely discriminated against in higher education by their low college attendance rates. Yes, I'm not fighting you on this, I don't know who you're arguing with. There used to be a male bias in college admissions, now there is a female bias. There is clearly no biological explanation, so it must be due to the discrimination and cultural factors I described.