Re:Silicon Valley's women have spoken. Now what?
by tzs on Saturday July 01, 2017 @11:33AM
(#14677513)
> What physical and psychological differences cause more men than women to go into tech?
The question is too narrow. Since the number of men and the number of women is about the same, an imbalance of them in any particular field implies that there must be an imbalance the other way somewhere else. Almost all inquiries into the male/female ratio on tech just look at tech. They need to look at where the women DO go, not just where they do not go.
One possibility from the items on the list of psychological differences given was empathy. That list said women tend to have more empathy than men. I'd expect that to, at least to some extent, make fields that require high empathy to have more women than men. In addition, higher empathy may make women more likely to choose fields in which they can help people, even if the job itself doesn't have any particular empathy requirement.
Another possibility is that girls mature faster than boys, both cognitively and emotionally. The brain undergoes some major reorganization between childhood and adulthood, and that starts in girls up to several years before it starts in boys. The slower emotional maturing in boys may mean that boys spend more time in that wonderful stage where your brain is developed enough to start really getting STEM subjects, but is still largely a child's brain that is still focused on what is fun now and doesn't care about preparing to be an adult. It's that stage that produces your classic STEM nerd.
The question is too narrow. Since the number of men and the number of women is about the same, an imbalance of them in any particular field implies that there must be an imbalance the other way somewhere else. Almost all inquiries into the male/female ratio on tech just look at tech. They need to look at where the women DO go, not just where they do not go.
One possibility from the items on the list of psychological differences given was empathy. That list said women tend to have more empathy than men. I'd expect that to, at least to some extent, make fields that require high empathy to have more women than men. In addition, higher empathy may make women more likely to choose fields in which they can help people, even if the job itself doesn't have any particular empathy requirement.
Another possibility is that girls mature faster than boys, both cognitively and emotionally. The brain undergoes some major reorganization between childhood and adulthood, and that starts in girls up to several years before it starts in boys. The slower emotional maturing in boys may mean that boys spend more time in that wonderful stage where your brain is developed enough to start really getting STEM subjects, but is still largely a child's brain that is still focused on what is fun now and doesn't care about preparing to be an adult. It's that stage that produces your classic STEM nerd.