Women Skip Math/Science Careers To Have Families

hessian notes a Cornell survey, published in the Psychological Bulletin, of 35 years of sociological studies that concludes that women tend to choose non-math-intensive fields for their careers not because they lack mathematical ability, but because they want flexibility to raise children or prefer less math-intensive fields of science. "'A major reason explaining why women are underrepresented not only in math-intensive fields but also in senior leadership positions in most fields is that many women choose to have children, and the timing of child rearing coincides with the most demanding periods of their career, such as trying to get tenure or working exorbitant hours to get promoted,' said lead author Stephen J. Ceci... The authors concluded that hormonal, brain, and other biological sex differences were not primary factors in explaining why women were underrepresented in science careers, and that studies on social and cultural effects were inconsistent and inconclusive. They also reported that although 'institutional barriers and discrimination exist, these influences still cannot explain why women are not entering or staying in STEM careers,' said Ceci."

Comments

Re:First step: Understand why women have babies.

[bDerrly]

Dear EsbenMoseHansen:

Noticing a trend between what you have said and your signature I couldn't help but question, "how is Atheism not a religion?"

I'm assuming you feel "humans were not designed" because there is zero irrefutable proof and, as such, requires "faith" to think that. However, the counter-argument is that, you have zero irrefutable proof to the contrary, that humans have evolved. In such a case then you must have "faith" that what you have read, studied, pondered, etc. is in fact truth.

Consider the original question: How is Atheism not a religion? Most people define "religion" as a faith in the unseen. Apply that to your zero-proof theorem that humans are participating in the "great game of evolution" and you have faith in the unseen.

As a side note, I completely agree that agnosticism is the absence of decisiveness.

To the real topic at hand: it doesn't take much to realize that women have a built-in need to have children (not to mention the hardware required). Whether you want to attribute that to culture, religion, science, economics or whatever, the truth is, the need is there. Much the same way men have a need for sexual release. You can try to study things and act all "scientific" about it, but that is the way we, as humans, operate.