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I agree women usually just aren't interested in engineering or other majors which require upper level math classes. There are a few but I can tell you from personal experience that the further you get along in your math or engineering classes, the less and less women you will encounter. Especially attractive ones.
I won't say that it's an aptitude thing where women can't do it because some of the ones I've come across did just as well or even better than many of the guys in these math classes.
I think gender roles in society are a factor as well. A math/engineering degree requires a lot of time to acquire and takes of lot of time even after college when it comes to actually working. In our society women are still looked upon to have and primarily care for the kids. A woman taking up engineering could seriously delay her years for starting a family and such so I think that's another reason they choose other fields.
Math/Engineering are traditionally male dominated fields. In general it seems like men are more interested and more likely to pursue degrees in fields with higher level math.
Other fields like Nursing and Design are typically female dominated, women are more interested in those and more likely to pursue degrees in them.
I think it would be a lot harder for a guy to be a nurse these days than it is for a woman to be a doctor. Not educationally, but how people think of it. I personally think nursing is a gender neutral career and since it's often very physically taxing, good for strong men. I think many women choose nursing over medical school because it's known to be a more flexible career and it plain costs less for the education. The young adults of my kids friends that are now in medical school are all very smart young women from fairly affluent backgrounds. I don't know any young men their age that are in med school.
I do think that the amount of women in engineering and CS will increase. Every college that I visited with my son, the CS professors would tout the incentives of their particular school for women in CS. Of my son's HS class, I would say equal amounts went in to engineering or CS of the very smart kids or they were planning for med school.
I agree women usually just aren't interested in engineering or other majors which require upper level math classes. There are a few but I can tell you from personal experience that the further you get along in your math or engineering classes, the less and less women you will encounter. Especially attractive ones.
It says a lot that you mention the attractiveness of women in math and engineering. It also says a lot that you just implicitly assume that physical attractiveness is the only kind relevant to women. The men in advanced math and engineering classes aren't generally that physically attractive, either. They both have other qualities like intelligence and high earning potential that make them attractive, though.
My niece was a math whiz all through school, and tutored kids in math in college. I wanted her to go into Engineering, but my brother (her dad) said to forget about it. He didn't like engineers in general. She got a degree in some kind of economics. Engineering would have worked a lot better for her, as she went to Germany after graduating, and had to struggle with visa restrictions in finding work. Engineers automatically get work visas in Germany.
Universities have programs to support women in engineering these days, but it's still a hard sell. There seems to still be a lot of family and societal pressure against it. I've noticed on C-D there seems to be a lot of stigma against engineers in general, I don't know why.
I don't think there is a stigma against women becoming engineers these days; I think it's still more of a push for men to become engineers. This is particularly true of Asian students. At the end of the day, engineering courses are extremely hard, so there doesn't need to be a whole lot of discouragement to keep students away from them.
I agree women usually just aren't interested in engineering or other majors which require upper level math classes. There are a few but I can tell you from personal experience that the further you get along in your math or engineering classes, the less and less women you will encounter. Especially attractive ones.
LOL This is so true. That was the worst part about taking calculus in college. There were actually quite a few women in my courses, but there were hardly any babes. The best classes to meet women were social science classes like sociology or psychology. The ratio was like 4-1 between male and female students in some of these classes, and for some reason, a good amount of them were hot.
It sounds pretty sexist, but I've always felt that really attractive women stay away from STEM fields because they know their looks won't help them as much as they will in other fields like communications or education.
Story about a hot woman in a stem field coming...........4..3..2.1 lol
LOL This is so true. That was the worst part about taking calculus in college. There were actually quite a few women in my courses, but there were hardly any babes. The best classes to meet women were social science classes like sociology or psychology. The ratio was like 4-1 between male and female students in some of these classes, and for some reason, a good amount of them were hot.
It sounds pretty sexist, but I've always felt that really attractive women stay away from STEM fields because they know their looks won't help them as much as they will in other fields like communications or education.
Story about a hot woman in a stem field coming...........4..3..2.1 lol
Yep, that is indeed sexist. And no "hot woman" story from me because this conversation is really not about how people look. Your post is an excellent example of how smart women aren't judged the same as smart men.
I think in 5-10 years you'll see a huge shift. My daughter and girls in her grade level are being highly encouraged through programs and teachers to get involved with math science and engineering. What use to be male dominated studies have now shifted and there is an increase in the number of girls her age who are involved and leading the pack. That being said there are still 60-75 percent of males in these classes. I know she is focusing on science but already at 14 she is in precalculus and has excelled in robotics and engineering. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a scholarship in these areas....
I think in 5-10 years you'll see a huge shift. My daughter and girls in her grade level are being highly encouraged through programs and teachers to get involved with math science and engineering. What use to be male dominated studies have now shifted and there is an increase in the number of girls her age who are involved and leading the pack. That being said there are still 60-75 percent of males in these classes. I know she is focusing on science but already at 14 she is in precalculus and has excelled in robotics and engineering. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a scholarship in these areas....
My college (uga) is predominately girls. It's a 60/40 ratio. In my comp sci class there are 4 girls in a 40 person class. In my upper level math class, there are 2 girls to 20 guys. In my very math orientated econ class 10 girls to 35 guys. In a coding based physics class, 3 girls to 15 guys. In my more social based econ class and psychology class there are way many girls than men. What is causing this?
Here we go again, another thread about why more girls aren't in math classes. Maybe because they are choosing different majors that don't require the same math classes. Maybe they aren't interested in careers that deal with lots of math. Is there some sort of quota that of women that needs to be met?
Is there some sort of quota that of women that needs to be met?
Yeah, and if the quota is not met we men already in the field get bashed for driving them away through our Neanderthal ways.
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My niece was a math whiz all through school, and tutored kids in math in college. I wanted her to go into Engineering, but my brother (her dad) said to forget about it. He didn't like engineers in general. She got a degree in some kind of economics. Engineering would have worked a lot better for her, as she went to Germany after graduating, and had to struggle with visa restrictions in finding work. Engineers automatically get work visas in Germany.
