Re:Men, women use web like prehistoric hunter-gatherers
by nostrademons on Sunday October 12, 2008 @02:03PM
(#330415)
I wonder if a similar effect is behind male/female differences in mathematical, scientific, and computing fields.
Mathematics usually requires that you go deep into a field, through a long chain of prerequisites. In order to understand general relativity, you need to understand differential geometry, which requires tensors and calculus, which requires vectors and linear algebra, which requires algebra, which requires arithmetic. In order to understand Haskell, you need to understand monads, which requires parametric data types and type classes, which requires algebraic data types, and so on.
Meanwhile, female-dominated skills like communications, law, or management usually require a broad base of knowledge and a relatively shallow chain of prerequisites. Lawyers have to know a ton of information to do their jobs, but much of it consists of court precedents that build upon the basic principles taught in first-year law school.
For that, matter, among the sciences, the ones with the largest female populations are those that require a broad base of knowledge rather than a deep chain of prerequisites. Compare biology and geology to physics and advanced mathematics.
Mathematics usually requires that you go deep into a field, through a long chain of prerequisites. In order to understand general relativity, you need to understand differential geometry, which requires tensors and calculus, which requires vectors and linear algebra, which requires algebra, which requires arithmetic. In order to understand Haskell, you need to understand monads, which requires parametric data types and type classes, which requires algebraic data types, and so on.
Meanwhile, female-dominated skills like communications, law, or management usually require a broad base of knowledge and a relatively shallow chain of prerequisites. Lawyers have to know a ton of information to do their jobs, but much of it consists of court precedents that build upon the basic principles taught in first-year law school.
For that, matter, among the sciences, the ones with the largest female populations are those that require a broad base of knowledge rather than a deep chain of prerequisites. Compare biology and geology to physics and advanced mathematics.