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14 comments
They're more inclined to go into those fields. That doesn't necessarily mean they are naturally better at those subject.
Why would they go into those fields if they were bad at it?
i think they just mean that women would be just as good but they choose not to take that path
I get that, I'm saying it might be that women aren't as good at it which is why you see fewer of them
If you aren't interested you won't be as likely to get better.
The gender gap in STEM subjects does not necessarily mean men are naturally better at STEM subjects, to tackle this difference we need to confront stereotypes to prevent socialisation.
There is a social stereotype that men are better at maths and science than women, when looking at the statistics this outlook seems to be supported. For example, as this study shows, the percentage of female students in core STEM subjects is only 35% and females only made up 26% of STEM graduates in 2019. Moreover, in 2019 women only consisted 24% of the STEM workforce.
If indeed men are naturally better than women at scientific subjects, then it’s not that surprising that women are so underrepresented. However, a recent study found that gender differences in mathematical abilities do not become evident until children reach adolescence. For example, between 6 and 9 years old, girls perform just as well as boys in maths and science.
In this sense, men are not naturally better at STEM subjects, but they are just more inclined to go into those areas as children start to conform to common stereotypes. For example, the previous study also shows that girls’ assessments of their own math ability were directly proportional to whether their mothers held gender stereotypes about STEM subjects; daughters of mothers who thought maths was a “boy’s” subject felt worse about their own abilities in maths and science.
The majority of 'STEM' fields are object-oriented (rather than person-oriented) and it's reasonably well established that even as infants, males have higher proclivity/interest in things, females in persons.
Interest motivates 'betterness', no?
On the one hand, people who are more interested in math tend to get better grades in math class.
On the other hand, students who are good at working on math homework together with other people also tend to get better grades.
Which hand wins if all else is equal? Who the heck knows? And since individuals vary so much within groups, does it matter?
A lot of commentators here don't seem to understand how a normal distribution works.
Men are consistently better than women at STEM subjects at the very top tail of the distribution.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06292-0/figures/1
But they are also more common at the very bottom tail too.
So actually males are both better and worse than females at STEM.
Always just make the point.
No need to attack previous commenters, or assume you know better.
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Make the case or invite a friend to comment!