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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: 1) by Arik on Thursday September 07 2017, @11:38PM (2 children)
And no, you have no obligations to me whatsoever. IIRC I foed you for making such an absurdly bad argument that I concluded I was being trolled. If you do it again my reaction might be the same *shrug*
That's just my nature, don't let it stress you.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Friday September 08 2017, @12:17AM (1 child)
Not stressed at all. You remained on my friend list throughout, because you have the most technical common sense around here, personal quirks notwithstanding.
But come on, if I was really trolling you... a troll wants to be noticed, to get a response. What response could be sweeter than getting someone to actually foe you? :)
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday September 08 2017, @12:57AM
It was simply to adjust your initial post score, as seen on my screen. For awhile you lost your +2, which meant that you only needed to be modded down twice to become invis to me. At least, I think it still works that way. Not sure if there was ever any practical effect but that was what was intended, and if you'd made a habit of trolling it might have invis'd some of the posts as other people caught on. Apparently you do not make such a habit, so it was time to remove it anyway.
If there is a way to do it without it being visible I missed that, and would happily do that instead, as what you said here is true.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?