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Women Avoid STEM Degrees to Get Better Grades?

posted by janrinok on Wednesday March 12 2014, @08:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the this-will-not-be-controversial-oh-no-sir dept.

GungnirSniper writes:

"Catherine Rampell at The Washington Post has 'A message to the nation's women: Stop trying to be straight-A students.'

In her analysis of others' findings, she writes of a discouragement gradient that pushes women out of harder college degrees, including economics and other STEM degrees. Men do not seem to have a similar discouragement gradient, so they stay in harder degree programs and ultimately earn more. Data suggests that women might also value high grades more than men do and sort themselves into fields where grading curves are more lenient.

'Maybe women just don't want to get things wrong,' Goldin hypothesized. 'They don't want to walk around being a B-minus student in something. They want to find something they can be an A student in. They want something where the professor will pat them on the back and say "You're doing so well!"'

'Guys,' she added, 'don't seem to give two damns.'

Why are women in college moving away from harder degrees?"

 
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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by GeminiDomino on Wednesday March 12 2014, @08:57PM

    by GeminiDomino (661) on Wednesday March 12 2014, @08:57PM (#15522)

    I'll leave the "Math is hard" jokes to someone else. I'm too busy laughing at Economics being considered a STEM degree.

    --
    "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by TK on Wednesday March 12 2014, @09:31PM

    by TK (2760) on Wednesday March 12 2014, @09:31PM (#15545)
    The 'E' stands for Economics.
    --
    The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 13 2014, @06:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 13 2014, @06:54AM (#15748)

    I'll leave the "Math is hard" jokes to someone else. I'm too busy laughing at Economics being considered a STEM degree.

    Glad I'm not the only one who who felt the poke in the eye. ;)

    Here's a math joke for ya: don't drink and derive.