Why do men dominate the technical fields so much?

[aneeshm]

I can only speak with authority for my own field of interest, Computer Science, but it seems to me that as far as technical fields are concerned, men dominate completely and overwhelmingly.

Studying in an engineering college, this becomes apparent. There almost no girl students in the Mechanical or Civil engineeiring departments of the college. There are a few more in electronics, and quite a few more in IT and Computers. The problem, however, is that these same girls don't actually use the degree after they graduate. From anecdotal evidence, I can say that the average number of women in the field is abysmally low compared to men, specially when you consider the more arcane or complex or creative technical jobs.

There are VERY few women "hackers". In the areas requiring a love of the field, or in wanting to pursue it as a hobby, such as contributions to free or open source software, there are even fewer women per capita than in the industry. Practically ALL the leading lights of the free software world are male.

What could the reason for this be? This is an open question, and I'm throwing it open for debate. I don't want to bias the debate before its begun, so I'll add in my own opinion only later.

[Pekka]

Why is this so? For many reasons.

First of all, this field requires certain kind of mathematical thinking, so with that alone it appeals to men. Why aren't there so many men as nurses?

Part of it must be, that society expects some kind of roles from men and women, taking care of people is suppsoed to be for females, crunching numbers and high tech for men.

I don't think it's necessarily anything more or less than the general appeal. And because you have such heavy concentration in certain fields, naturally they are dominated by those individuals, and that in itself is like the snowball effect, it tends to make things even more polarized as a result.

I think, that at least in here, we're starting to see more women in computer science etc. More with information systems though, and more with society and information systems and things related to that. Still kind of non-existent in hardcore software engineering and programming.

I don't necessarily think this is a problem. I mean, people should be able to pursue their happiness, if you want to do something, you should go and do that, no matter what the standards and expectations of the society are. So if you are a girl, and want to do engineering, welcome! If you don't want to do it, then that's OK too.

[Aeson]

I think we'd have to wait a few more centuries now that women are accepted in the workplace before really seeing to what extent it's nature, and what it's nurture.

When you consider that most of these fields started (or branched off from fields which started) at a point in history where women weren't welcomed into the (related) workplace, it's only natural that those fields would have developed in a manner interesting and tailored towards the abilities of those men who shaped them.

Having known very technically minded women, as well as very untechnically minded men... it seems to me that there at least isn't a genetic barrier there... whatever the pre-dispositions might (or might not) turn out to be.

Certainly men and women operate differenly in some ways. My guess would be that if you assumed these tech fields had to work the way they do (meaning, in how the community interacts, how tools are designed, ect.), there'd be a rather strong "nature" factor at work, but that "nurture" could still overcome it. But if say, computers had been designed solely by women instead, perhaps the way they functioned, or more importantly, how they were operated, would preclude men more than women based on the same differences.

[Barnabas]

because more men are very good at maths than women

I think thats the way God/nature made us

[Arrian]

What Aeson said.

My wife double majored in Mathematics and Computer Science. I, on the other hand, have a degree in History.

I think you will see quite a bit of change in the numbers over the next generation.

-Arrian

[Lorizael]

Neo: I just thought... you were a guy.

Trinity: Most guys do.

[Asher]

Women are better at cleaning.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Most women are better at trolling than Asher.

[Asher]

I can't think of a single one that is.

[Gibsie]

Since many people find their longterm parters at their workplace, very few sane women would enter a field manned mainly by, uhh, you get the picture.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
because more men are very good at maths than women

I think thats the way God/nature made us

Don´t think so.
At school the girls were normally better at math than the boys and those few ladies I know that study/have studiesd mathematics were very good in their field.

IMHO it is just that most women are more interested in other fields (especially fields that involve sovcial things) and therefore after school when they can decide what to study/learn most of them just go for a degree in a scial field or a field that involves caring for others (psychology, medicine etc.)
although they could be as good in a technical field as men.

IMHO this is mostly nurture, as even today girls are rather encouraged to play with puppets and learn a traditional female role model than to play with technical things.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Gibsie
Since many people find their longterm parters at their workplace, very few sane women would enter a field manned mainly by, uhh, you get the picture.

[loinburger]

The few studies I've read on the subject seem to indicate that

1. On average, women have a greater interest and aptitude for language, while men have a greater interest and aptitude for maths. This is independent of age.

2. However, when the studies only focus on children with a high socioeconomic status (i.e. children in fancy-pants private schools), the differences in aptitude vanish, and the differences in interest are somewhat diminished.

So I chalk it up to "mostly nurture and a bit of nature," i.e., the average woman has the same inherent maths aptitude as the average man, but has less interest in maths and therefore is less likely to have developed her maths aptitude. If your interest is in history then you're probably not going to try to learn much about calculus.

[One_more_turn]

When my son was born, we tried to give him dolls to play. He didn't even bother. Then we had little cars and trains lying around, he jumped on them immediately.

Now that my daughter is born, we will give her cars and trains first and study the response.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST
Don´t think so.
At school the girls were normally better at math than the boys and those few ladies I know that study/have studiesd mathematics were very good in their field.

I have different experiences. Girls tend to be better at things that can by learned by heart while boys are better at things that demand creativity and intuition. Also, especially in school time, boys tend to be much lazier than girls (which explains why they seldom learn things by heart). They much rather save their energy for more important things like sports, play, belching and farting contensts, doing stupid pranks etc. This of course skews the results of the comparison between the genders. Please note, that this is no general rule, just a pure statistical observation. There exist undoubtly many very creative women and not so innovative men.

Also, women as classical family and house keepers are conservative by nature. Their work place was always the same and most of their duties (cooking food, feeding children etc.) were routine jobs, there was not much place for innovation. The traditional role of men is bread winner (by hunting, fighting, working etc.). They were much more often confronted with changing situations, which demanded quick decisions, new approaches etc., with one word, creativity. In present times, this is about to change with emancipation, equal rights and all that, but my guess is, that it'll take a few more decades or even centuries until those classical roles even out. If ever.