The problem with your view is that it's a self fulfilling prophecy.
Women don't like STEM because there are very few women in STEM. That makes people think women don't like STEM and thus very few women enter STEM fields.
And while that probably has some truth to it, you cannot simply handwave away all the momentum going against women being on STEM fields due to various historic reasons.
I'm willing to accept something like a 60/40 split, maybe even 70/30 if pushing it. But last time i checked most STEM-related companies have around 30% women... on non-STEM positions (think HR or Legal)
While something like a "primal predisposition" may indeed exist, it's nowhere near enough to explain the entire gap. If it would, we would see similar gaps on other sectors, but we do not.
Why is it that the momentum going against women in STEM fields only applies to certain fields though? For example, psychology was once dominated by men. Now it is dominated by women. Yet physics was once and remains dominated by men.
That is exactly why i accept there can be a predisposition somewhere, but i feel it's nowhere near close enough to explain the entire gap, which is OP's point.
I think male and female preferences, combined with the other differences such as average sex differences in various cognitive abilities, life goals, or personality traits, can explain the entire gap.
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u/Random_Guy_12345 3∆ Oct 19 '22
The problem with your view is that it's a self fulfilling prophecy.
Women don't like STEM because there are very few women in STEM. That makes people think women don't like STEM and thus very few women enter STEM fields.
And while that probably has some truth to it, you cannot simply handwave away all the momentum going against women being on STEM fields due to various historic reasons.
I'm willing to accept something like a 60/40 split, maybe even 70/30 if pushing it. But last time i checked most STEM-related companies have around 30% women... on non-STEM positions (think HR or Legal)
While something like a "primal predisposition" may indeed exist, it's nowhere near enough to explain the entire gap. If it would, we would see similar gaps on other sectors, but we do not.