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from the doesn't-stem-student's-interest dept.
Research into the obvious, but someone has finally done it: Three women researchers have studied the behavior of undergraduates in STEM fields, and concluded that there basically is no problem. From the abstract:
"The results show that high school academic preparation, faculty gender composition, and major returns have little effect on major switching behaviors, and that women and men are equally likely to change their major in response to poor grades in major-related courses. Moreover, women in male-dominated majors do not exhibit different patterns of switching behaviors relative to their male colleagues."
Furthermore current recruitment efforts to attract more women tend to be counterproductive. In an interview, the primary author says:
"Society keeps telling us that STEM fields are masculine fields, that we need to increase the participation of women in STEM fields, but that kind of sends a signal that it's not a field for women, and it kind of works against keeping women in these fields."
One of our female students told me that the women are interviewed endlessly, for one project or another: "tell us about your experience", "are you doing ok", "have you experienced sexism", and on, and on. That alone is enough to make them question their career choice.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07 2017, @09:53PM (9 children)
She says she's never experienced any sexism, and that being one of the few women in her tech career makes her feel special. She thinks men have the same experience as women, but only women misinterpret the usual irritations of work as being somehow gender related. When most of the people are men, there are going to be a lot of assholes who happen to be men; I guess it's the Fallacy of the Minority to find persecution where there isn't.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by chromas on Thursday September 07 2017, @10:55PM (7 children)
Sounds like she's got the internalized misogyny. It's not her fault. Through her parents and friends, the patriarchy has trained her from birth to believe that her experiences are her own and that she can do whatever she wants without feeling oppressed even though she is. It's a shame really.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @12:30AM (5 children)
That doesn't even make sense. Not to mention that it is highly disrespectful of women. Basically, you're saying that women don't have minds of their own, and that the patriarchy had to give them goals, personnas, and everything that makes them what they are.
Does the liberal left ever even LISTEN to the crap they are spewing?
(Score: 4, Informative) by hemocyanin on Friday September 08 2017, @12:39AM (3 children)
Recalibrate your sarcasm detector ASAP.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aristarchus on Friday September 08 2017, @01:02AM (2 children)
But did you read this part?
In accusing the post of being "the liberal left", it is obvious this response is by a right-wing nut-job, who, being a right-wing nut-job, does not have a sarcasm detector, or the capability to have one installed. There is this wall, you see.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday September 08 2017, @02:54AM
I see a different possibility. The poster may well have recognized the sarcasm as directed against 'the liberal left' (which is a misnomer for this faction, btw, but it's a common one) and simply chimed in to support that. The original, sarcastic, post obviously does bear a strong resemblance to the 'progressive' and 'intersectional' crowd. After all, if it didn't, neither of us would have been able to recognize it as sarcasm so easily.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday September 08 2017, @03:58PM
Given that the post is currently modded +5 Insightful, I'd wager a lot of not-right-wing-nut-jobs don't have sarcasm detectors either.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday September 08 2017, @12:41AM
I suspect a case of Poe's law here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @07:48AM
How the heck did this get to +5 Insightful instead of +5 Funny?
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Thursday September 07 2017, @10:56PM
Ugh, so misogynistic to say that about women. She should be forced to turn in her woman card [hillaryclinton.com] and be recognized as the ... uh ... privileged sexist male cishet something something that she truly is.