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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: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 08 2017, @03:30AM (10 children)
Uuuuugh, tell me about it. I get the feeling like almost all jobs are 90% or more about making the right social noises and maybe 10% actual work. It's nice to meet another woman in the tech field, though you're *far* more technical than I am--I just build and fix the silly things and make them do server stuff, whereas you actually program them.
The darkly hilarious part of this is when the men gas on about how they're the logical sex, and then if you truly examine how and why they do what they do, it's pure in-group politics and social signalling--as emotional as it gets!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Virindi on Friday September 08 2017, @03:57AM (9 children)
Yeah, I often see mentioned by feminists (the crazy ones) that logic is a "male" thing, and as such it should be rejected. That's about as ridiculous as an argument can be. There are rational, thinking people of all stripes. And, rejecting rational argument means a rejection of civilization itself. All of civilization is built on the concepts of predictable laws, scientific fact-finding, etc. A world where everyone just acted on their whims and "feelings" would be a world of children, and it would be unable to function. People would starve.
It's all a high school like game of political one-upmanship with those people. I can't stand it. And yep, men do the same thing too!
I tend to think that western civilization is fast approaching a crisis where political bullshit overwhelms the value of real work and nothing can get done anymore.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 08 2017, @06:25AM (1 child)
You're not alone in feeling that way...unfortunately, though, I don't think we're going to right course in time. I'm not a psychic, or at least not the kind that can read the future, but I do get precognitions and they've been...unpleasant...for the last several years. And especially the last several months. A perfect storm, involving several literal storms, is brewing, and I can feel the dam about to burst.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday September 08 2017, @10:51AM
For what its worth, Azuma, I have been having this same intense foreboding for a couple of years now... watching how we are going yet further and further into debt and seeing how much debt the average family is in - and kids! Especially our kids! Neck deep in college debts - trying to pay off creditors when they need every penny they can get their hands on to start up their own families.
Its like waiting for the ice shelf to calve. You know its gonna happen. But you do not know when.
Its time for the next economic collapse. [wikipedia.org]
It's gonna be a real wham-dinger, as we can no longer "drop the interest rate" to infuse yet more borrowed money into the system.
Our manufacturing engines have been sold years ago. We can no longer trade altitude for airspeed. We are now barely clearing the trees. When it stalls this time, we hit the ground. Hard.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Friday September 08 2017, @12:53PM (4 children)
Thank you for the best yet explanation of why those who lean right economically are very perturbed by the silliness we hear from those who lean left economically.
If you want to kill people by the hundreds of thousands, or millions, study the countries that have gone whole-hog leftist economics.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday September 08 2017, @02:43PM (2 children)
If you want to kill people by the hundreds of thousands, or millions, study the countries that have gone whole-hog leftist economics.
And if you want to see places that are hopelessly mired in conflict and war and oppression for its citizens, study the countries that have gone whole-hog conservative and religious.
The countries that are the best and safest to live in are places that are capitalist market economies with a very healthy dose of socialist welfare-state services, and which have almost completely abandoned religion. The more religion there is (whether it's worshiping some unseen deity, or some family dynasty as in one particular country), the worse it is.
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Friday September 08 2017, @03:23PM (1 child)
Totally agree. That's why I was careful to specify economically right leaning rather than authoritarian right leaning.
Damn! It's almost like we need more than one right-left line for describing political opinion.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday September 08 2017, @03:59PM
Places that are extremely right-leaning economically aren't very nice to live in either, and result in a few ultra-wealthy people and everyone else dirt poor. As I said before, the best places are countries with mostly-free-market capitalist economies (so not far-left) but with substantial welfare-state protections and programs. For that economic axis, either extreme leads to very bad conditions.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Virindi on Friday September 08 2017, @05:07PM
I don't think it's entirely the same, but perhaps related. The problem you are talking about is that "left" income redistribution requires authoritarian power, and the further you go the more of it is needed. There have been plenty of other places that practiced high levels of such power, though, which instead continued the standard "crony capitalist" model. So while attempting to achieve equality of economic outcomes can cause those horrors, it is just one cause.
The real disease is the stubborn human belief that you can solve problems (often solved by abuse of government power) by giving government more power. It is the belief that government can be used to solve all of society's problems, rather than just act to keep a stable, peaceful environment for society to work out its own problems. Dealing with social problems by force is never successful unless views were already changing anyway.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Grishnakh on Friday September 08 2017, @02:45PM
A world where everyone just acted on their whims and "feelings" would be a world of children
Sounds like any country where religion plays a major part in society.
, and it would be unable to function. People would starve.
Yep, the most religious nations right now do seem to have a big problem with that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @04:19PM
Uhhh, considering that Trump is now the US President, I think we may have already hit the wall. YMMV.