Why women are less represented in scientific subjects and mathematics? | Homo sapiens
The issue of representation of women in academia is not out of the headlines and two recent papers by the same authors allow me to go back to. I wrote about it in the past (here and here and here) and new articles reiterate some of the points I brought up there and bring some new and interesting (one study can be read in its entirety here, the second study abstract here). The articles were written by two senior social psychologists, who deal with many years research on cognitive differences between men and women. They conclude these articles decades of research on differences between men and women in academia and come to conclusions quite surprising, in refutation of some common myths on the subject. Let's start with some facts. Since 1970 there is a dramatic increase in the number of women in scientific professions, many (all figures are based on post data from the US). Women constitute half of the doctors, 52% of the doctors in the life sciences, as well as 57% of those with doctorate in social sciences. In addition, 71% of those with a doctorate in psychology are women. 40 years ago the representation of women in all of these areas was significantly lower. For example, only 13% of the doctors in Life Sciences and Doctor were only 5.9%, were Doctor of Mathematics. Changes in many academic fields Christ, but however, secure subjects widely based on mathematics, the percentage of women remains quite low and there has been a dramatic increase as in other areas. secure In most universities, between 9% -16% of the members of the relevant faculties (especially secure mathematics computer science, engineering and physics) are women. Why is this happening?
Proposed three possible explanations for these differences: 1) The differences are because women are worse than men in certain mathematical abilities that affect the ability to excel in the field. 2) There is discrimination against women. 3) The differences result from different personal preferences, and choices that affect women do the unequal representation.
Bottom line, the general conclusion of researchers is seems that the preferences of women are those that affect secure the most significant in the inequality in academia, if some effects of gender differences in abilities. No discrimination secure is causing these gaps. Let's review each of these factors separately.
When talking about gender differences in any capacity, mean one of two things: differences and differences in the average capacity variance secure or dispersion. Mathematical ability, almost there is no difference between men and women in most abilities, but yes there is a difference of between secure 10% and 20% of the variance. What is it exactly mean? If you take the psychometric mathematical secure part, is that men and women receive the same scores on average. But when you look at the distribution of scores show the dispersion of larger men. That is to say, there are many more men high percentiles, as well as many more men lower percentiles. We will focus only on the top that is relevant for our purposes.
The upper quartile of psychometric tests or other standardized secure tests find that there are two men for every woman. This finding is true for many mathematical secure tests and those made of different ages. Boys in seventh grade, for example, achieving a maximum grade standardized math test 6.5 times more than girls at that age. Is overrepresentation of men at the end of the scale explains secure the excess representation of men in these areas later in the academy? Probably the only part. If this were true, we would expect there will be more women in the mathematical representation of women as a ratio of 1: 2 top percentile secure in these tests. By the way, contrary to the common perception that the type of tests and questions that discriminates against women, a claim that was probably correct in the past, today it seems in reality just the opposite. Most high school and psychometric tests are built on calculations that build are preferred over boys (and not, for example, abstract thinking or evidence of sentences).
Now, it is possible that the explanation lies in the large gaps in academia this upper crust, secure the ratio between men and women is even higher. After all, mathematics and physics professors represent one prodigies of one thousand or ten thousand. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for the simple reason that tests like psychometric not sensitive enough for such a high mathematical ability. American psychometric maximum score achieved by quite a few people (again, more men than women), but it required mathematical level is not unusually high.
One mathematical domain which yes there is a difference between secure men and women with men demonstrating superior to the average women is also a test Harotatziot mentality which is actually a test of spatial perception. I wrote about it in the past (here, here and here). Countless studies show that men systematically perform these tasks better than women. Are these differences affect the representation of women in math? It is not clear and there is no conclusive evidence either way, but apparently these differences do not influence in a big way.
Are women discriminated Academy of scientific and mathematical fields? Let's look at what studies on saying. One preliminary arguments, not directly related to discrimination but concerns social factors, secure is that socialization is different for men and women that affects their mathematical abilities. Parents tell their children that math is white, and discourage girls from cracking down on the subject. The studies on the subject show that this claim basis. The strongest evidence of this is the amount of girls studying math and science in schools (in the US have much more freedom than in select areas of study, especially in high school). Not only high school girls take as many math courses as boys, they also spend a higher average scores, and even choose to study mathematics at university undergraduate classes if not more. That is, if there was socialization, is not expressed. In fact studies also show that in recent decades parents encourage girls to study mathematics equally to male.
We will claim of discrimination. People who claim that women are discriminated against in academia confuse two separate issues: real discrimination resulting from the preference of men over women way, and
The issue of representation of women in academia is not out of the headlines and two recent papers by the same authors allow me to go back to. I wrote about it in the past (here and here and here) and new articles reiterate some of the points I brought up there and bring some new and interesting (one study can be read in its entirety here, the second study abstract here). The articles were written by two senior social psychologists, who deal with many years research on cognitive differences between men and women. They conclude these articles decades of research on differences between men and women in academia and come to conclusions quite surprising, in refutation of some common myths on the subject. Let's start with some facts. Since 1970 there is a dramatic increase in the number of women in scientific professions, many (all figures are based on post data from the US). Women constitute half of the doctors, 52% of the doctors in the life sciences, as well as 57% of those with doctorate in social sciences. In addition, 71% of those with a doctorate in psychology are women. 40 years ago the representation of women in all of these areas was significantly lower. For example, only 13% of the doctors in Life Sciences and Doctor were only 5.9%, were Doctor of Mathematics. Changes in many academic fields Christ, but however, secure subjects widely based on mathematics, the percentage of women remains quite low and there has been a dramatic increase as in other areas. secure In most universities, between 9% -16% of the members of the relevant faculties (especially secure mathematics computer science, engineering and physics) are women. Why is this happening?
Proposed three possible explanations for these differences: 1) The differences are because women are worse than men in certain mathematical abilities that affect the ability to excel in the field. 2) There is discrimination against women. 3) The differences result from different personal preferences, and choices that affect women do the unequal representation.
Bottom line, the general conclusion of researchers is seems that the preferences of women are those that affect secure the most significant in the inequality in academia, if some effects of gender differences in abilities. No discrimination secure is causing these gaps. Let's review each of these factors separately.
When talking about gender differences in any capacity, mean one of two things: differences and differences in the average capacity variance secure or dispersion. Mathematical ability, almost there is no difference between men and women in most abilities, but yes there is a difference of between secure 10% and 20% of the variance. What is it exactly mean? If you take the psychometric mathematical secure part, is that men and women receive the same scores on average. But when you look at the distribution of scores show the dispersion of larger men. That is to say, there are many more men high percentiles, as well as many more men lower percentiles. We will focus only on the top that is relevant for our purposes.
The upper quartile of psychometric tests or other standardized secure tests find that there are two men for every woman. This finding is true for many mathematical secure tests and those made of different ages. Boys in seventh grade, for example, achieving a maximum grade standardized math test 6.5 times more than girls at that age. Is overrepresentation of men at the end of the scale explains secure the excess representation of men in these areas later in the academy? Probably the only part. If this were true, we would expect there will be more women in the mathematical representation of women as a ratio of 1: 2 top percentile secure in these tests. By the way, contrary to the common perception that the type of tests and questions that discriminates against women, a claim that was probably correct in the past, today it seems in reality just the opposite. Most high school and psychometric tests are built on calculations that build are preferred over boys (and not, for example, abstract thinking or evidence of sentences).
Now, it is possible that the explanation lies in the large gaps in academia this upper crust, secure the ratio between men and women is even higher. After all, mathematics and physics professors represent one prodigies of one thousand or ten thousand. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for the simple reason that tests like psychometric not sensitive enough for such a high mathematical ability. American psychometric maximum score achieved by quite a few people (again, more men than women), but it required mathematical level is not unusually high.
One mathematical domain which yes there is a difference between secure men and women with men demonstrating superior to the average women is also a test Harotatziot mentality which is actually a test of spatial perception. I wrote about it in the past (here, here and here). Countless studies show that men systematically perform these tasks better than women. Are these differences affect the representation of women in math? It is not clear and there is no conclusive evidence either way, but apparently these differences do not influence in a big way.
Are women discriminated Academy of scientific and mathematical fields? Let's look at what studies on saying. One preliminary arguments, not directly related to discrimination but concerns social factors, secure is that socialization is different for men and women that affects their mathematical abilities. Parents tell their children that math is white, and discourage girls from cracking down on the subject. The studies on the subject show that this claim basis. The strongest evidence of this is the amount of girls studying math and science in schools (in the US have much more freedom than in select areas of study, especially in high school). Not only high school girls take as many math courses as boys, they also spend a higher average scores, and even choose to study mathematics at university undergraduate classes if not more. That is, if there was socialization, is not expressed. In fact studies also show that in recent decades parents encourage girls to study mathematics equally to male.
We will claim of discrimination. People who claim that women are discriminated against in academia confuse two separate issues: real discrimination resulting from the preference of men over women way, and
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