Friday, July 21, 2017

Why Brilliant Girls Tend to Favor Non-STEM Careers


And it is not just a male/female thing...

Or do girls with the skill sets that would give them entrance to STEM fields prefer fields that involve working with people over fields that involve working with things?

and "skill sets" are one thing (maybe "aptitude" better here) but then you still have to rigorously TRAIN to get good at something... you need to go hard and get reps...






14 comments:

Detroit Dan said...

Good one! Thanks

Ryan Harris said...

I think it goes along with the Gender Equality Paradox

Matt Franko said...

Ryan there are definitely differences between the genders...

But imo we let the females off the hook way too easy... they have to be made to stay with it in high school sorry...

Matt Franko said...

Ryan did you see the thing down thread where the female writer for the New York Times challenged Trump on his statement that China increased its trade with North Korea by "almost 40%" and then in the next sentence said that the trade increased 37.4% ?

I would bet that that female hasn't had a math course since maybe ninth grade or maybe eighth grade .... we are setting the bar way too low ....

Anonymous said...

But imo we let the females off the hook way too easy... they have to be made to stay with it in high school sorry...

Matt - if there were an equal number of women on this blog as men, you would be lying in the corridor, bloodied and knackered by now ....

Anonymous said...

Besides - the guys have screwed up this world so much, maybe they should just move aside and give the women a go. They could hardly do worse! They are smarter. Maybe then we would find out what technical competence looks like?

Matt Franko said...

It's a big problem over here JR, there are huge PR efforts in the education community which try to get the females to think STEM....

https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/10/21/women-still-underrepresented-in-stem-fields

We lose them in high school imo.... they should be forced to train in these subjects in HS even if it requires we have to implement new methods..

You can see the results in this NYT female who is trying to break Trumps balls while she asserts 37.4 is not almost 40....

We are infested with mathematical morons over here..... it's a big part of the "out of money!" problem

Matt Franko said...

"- if there were an equal number of women on this blog as men"

That fact that there is not is revealing in itself...

Tom Hickey said...

As an educator, I can tell you with confidence that forcing people is a bad strategy.

When I was growing up, boys played "war" and girls played "house." Boys had toy guns and girls had dolls.

Using the analogy of computing to represent neurophysiology. the nervous system is hardware with a built in machine language. Early imprinting and socialization is like assembly language as a low-level language on top of machine language that doesn't need to be compiled, that is, run through the cortex.

Later, a more complex operating system is installed through the educational process and programs that need to be complied. Pieces of earlier code migrate along through the process determining both the types of higher level languages and programs that are run subsequently.

Different processes imposed by gender differences, social class, etc., persist and influence subsequent software choice and use. Attempting to run incompatible software will at best produce a lot of error messages, if it runs at all.

To change a society, change the upbringing and educational process to fit future students for the roles that are desired.

Presently, we are doing the same old, same old — training elites to rule and workers to work. As productivity increases result in the need for fewer workers, a residual builds, which suits the elite fine, since it "disciplines" wages and salaries.

This is the feudal and capitalist way that suits the elite. It won't change much without introducing more socialism.

Matt Franko said...

Well Tom it seems that the current agreed to concept is people would like to see more females in the STEM fields...

If that is the agreed to concept, we then have to figure out technically how to get it done... I am just saying that the current approach seems to be failing... which imo lets our young opt out of math too easily...

The 'no child left behind' stuff seems under weighted in math...

We need to figure out new training methods to keep the females motivated and involved... seems like they perhaps get a few bad grades and just drop it... saying "well I am not very good at math.."

Everyone can get better if they continue to train...

Tom Hickey said...

Not just a training issue. Ii's cultural and institutional, too. Have to address it on all levels. Requiring women to take more STEM course is unlikely to produce much. They still have to chose STEM careers.

Actually, it is happening gradually. Lot more women in upper levels of tech fields especially medicine, dentistry, business, and academics.

Anonymous said...

Referring to the article above: - women like working with people and things; not just things.

Matt Franko said...

Well you can't eat people...

Kaivey said...

Love it!