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Engineers Have More Sons, Nurses More Daughters

Posted by Hemos on from the but-what-about-female-engineers-and-male-nurses dept.

Bifurcati writes "While it might be irrelevant for many /.ers, a recent study has shown that people in stereotypically male professions (engineering, IT, mathematics, etc) are more likely to have sons than daughters, while nurses, therapists and teachers tend to produce more girls. Based on independent survey data, engineering types produce 140 boys to every 100 girls, while nurses and the like produce 135 girls to 100 boys. The explanation is unclear, but it might have interesting long-term social implications. A more detailed summary of the journal article is available on Illuminating Science."

9 of 668 comments (clear)

  1. diet can affect gender... by professorhojo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Studies have shown that a mother-to-be's diet high in calcium and magnesium including milk, beans, cereals, cheese and nuts may favor a baby girl, whereas a diet high in pizza and coke apparantly favors the conception of a baby boy.

  2. Irresponsible statistics by metachor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Repeat after me: "Correlation does not imply causality."

    1. Re:Irresponsible statistics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The question, of course, is whether this is a reasonable interpretaiton of an objective set of data, or whether this is pseudostatistics where you start from a conclusion, and work backwards to find it in the numbers. Some questions I'd like to see addressed:

      * How were the groupings into "masculine" and "feminine" professions done? Is this reasonable, and did they truly choose the most "obvious" masculine and feminine professions to include?
      * Do these groupings span the dataset, or are some (possibly most) professions excluded as "neutral"?
      * What is the breakdown by profession for all professions, not just the included groups?
      * Most importantly, was the selection of the "masculine" and "feminine" professions determined BEFORE or AFTER the data was collected?

      My concern here is that they started with a dataset for chilbirth for all professions (probably on a fairly small dataset). They noticed some professions skewed one way, some another. They noticed that some of the professions skewing male were "masculine" and some skewing female were "feminine" and called it a conclusion, sweeping all the other anomalites in their dataset under the rug. Hey, presto! Conclusion!

      Fact: The general benchmark for "statistical significance" is 95% confidence that the data cannot be explained as a random phenomenon.

      Experiment: Create 20 hypothetical correlations to test for on a completely random dataset. On average, you should find one in twenty hits the 95% confidence mark.

      Intellectually dishonest followup: Publish your one statistically significant result with great fanfare. Bury the othe 19 in a footnote, if you mention them at all.

      Step 3: Profit!

  3. World Domination! by Lordofohio · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just the news I need to hear in order to start my line of supersmart offspring that will form the ultimate Revenge of the Nerds. Mwuhahahahahahahha

    Oh wait, according to my calculations the probability of me getting laid is 3x10^-8

  4. And I married a nurse by BronxBomber · · Score: 5, Funny
    While this study is most assuredly crap, (I dont see what these "long term social implications" really are), its pretty interesting.

    Hopefully (we dont have children yet), I'll have a healthy boy or girl, who will take great care of me AND my source code in my very old age.

    --
    ...both interiorlly, and exteriorlly.
  5. Easy explanation! by behoward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Easy explanation: people in stereotypically male professions, except for jocks, are less able to attract an attractive mate. This sad fact leads them to disproportionately engage in sex using the "doggy" position to avoid looking at each other's ugly faces. And, as has been proven, this results in semen getting in closer to the egg where the male sperm can impregnate. Face-to-face intercourse requires sperm to swim farther, giving the advantage to the female sperm, which have greater stamina and can impregnate after all the wimpy male sperm have died out.

  6. Re:Simple explanation by Scurra+UK · · Score: 5, Funny


    --- JOKE --->

    0
    you -> /|\
    / \

    Just to spell it out for _It doesn't come easy_, this is a a joke flying right over your head.

  7. Irresponsible conversation by missing000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I love this game.

    Repeat after me, "I'm a bit daft, and I like to think others will repeat silly things I say from time to time."

    Now, go have a beer.

  8. Re:Simple explanation by nitehawk214 · · Score: 5, Funny

    A friend told me once: "Of course I had a boy, my father had a boy, and his father had a boy, and so on..."

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust