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posted by martyb on Monday December 10 2018, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the unexpected-causes dept.

In a landmark study involving over a million students, it appears that the reason boys dominate girls in STEM fields is not that they are better than girls at it (the reverse seems to be true) but, perversely, that gender differences are lower in non-STEM fields.

About the STEM grades, which are often abused as an explanation:

A classroom with more variable grades indicates a bigger gap between high and low performing students, and greater male variability could result in boys outnumbering girls at the top and bottom of the class.

“Greater male variability is an old idea that people have used to claim that there will always be more male geniuses – and fools – in society,” O’Dea says.

The team found that on average, girls’ grades were higher than boys’, and girls’ grades were less variable than boys’.

But girls' and boys' variability were much closer in non-STEM fields.


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  • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @08:14AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @08:14AM (#772276)

    Goddamnit. You can't just silence people who are expressing a perfectly rational, discussion-worthy point.

    FIX THE MODERATION SYSTEM.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   0  
       Troll=1, Funny=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   0  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @09:41AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @09:41AM (#772295)

    -1 Troll mod!
    FTFY! I just love the smell of social engineering in the morning! It smells like, semen.