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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday September 07 2017, @09:35PM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:04PM (2 children)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:04PM (#564810)

    No one gives a shit that there aren't many male nurses.

    I bet the female nurses working in the bariatric ward would probably appreciate more male nurses. Or better hydraulics/robotics.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Kell on Friday September 08 2017, @10:27AM (1 child)

    by Kell (292) on Friday September 08 2017, @10:27AM (#565004)

    A lot of people forget that male nurses get all the shit lifting jobs. My brother was an RN and injured himself several times on the job - the female nurses all demanded he do the lifting, and he couldn't get out of it. Even when he had already been suffering lifting injuries.

    --
    Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Friday September 08 2017, @02:30PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday September 08 2017, @02:30PM (#565108)

      Hospitals used to have employees called "orderlies" who were there mainly to do this job, and to deal with combative patients. Usually they were giant, burly men.

      Somewhere along the line, they fired them all to save money, thinking the nurses could do this work. My mom used to be a nurse, and saw this transition. She ended up getting injured lifting an obese patient, and suing the hospital (and settling). This shit should be illegal.