Why do men dominate the technical fields so much?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I specifically mentioned that assumption earlier.

Why, though? At the highest end I don't see why more talented people would necessarily choose physics. Such people probably have a lot of options open to them, and what they do would probably be more dependent on their tastes.

[Jon Miller]

I know very talented people who chose physics because they wanted a challenge.

JM

[Jon Miller]

I know some badass female physicists.

However, I would say that the poor physicist group in my class (and others) are about equal in size of men and women, which is bad for women considering there are so many fewer of them in physics.

Math doesn't seem to be as bad, so I think it is partly the fault of society.

JM

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I know very talented people who chose physics because they wanted a challenge.

JM

There are other challenging fields.

[Asher]

Such as history and filosofy.

[Kuciwalker]

[Kuciwalker]

And even so, within the high end itself there's not a reason to believe desire for a challenge correlates with aptitude. I imagine there are many people in all parts of that spectrum who are motivated by a challenging job. I'm sure there are also a lot of people who are motivated by other things, like

[Jon Miller]

A bit ago a Physics PhD (in the right subfield) could start work for industry at 100k a year. Which isn't bad money wise.

It is interesting that those who make the most money are definitely not the most intelligent, except by the metric of greater income being greater intelligence.

JM
(Admittedly not the top)

[Kuciwalker]

A bit ago a Physics PhD (in the right subfield) could start work for industry at 100k a year. Which isn't bad money wise.

But someone with the ability to do that could easily be making a lot more money.

It is interesting that those who make the most money are definitely not the most intelligent, except by the metric of greater income being greater intelligence.

The jobs that are most important or valuable aren't the ones that require mathematical geniuses to perform. Only those sorts of people can become (very good) physicists, though.

[Drogue]

Re: Why do men dominate the technical fields so much?

There was a really good debate between two Harvard professors of Psychology (Pinker and Spelke) about this. It's quite long, but a very thorough and interesting discussion IMHO:

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/debate05/debate05_index.html

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Why, though? At the highest end I don't see why more talented people would necessarily choose physics. Such people probably have a lot of options open to them, and what they do would probably be more dependent on their tastes.

Your chi is weak, your thinking cloudy. You must meditate on this issue.

[Kuciwalker]

Let's restrict the population considered to those with the aptitude to do physics really well. Why would those in the 90th percentile necessarily be much more drawn to physics than those in the 10th?

[Asher]

One thing I've noticed about women in the technical fields is they are attention whores. They join the field for the attention, they're all stupid sluts at heart. eg, AnnC

[Barnabas]

Can someone post pictures of hot chicks who are good at maths?

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Let's restrict the population considered to those with the aptitude to do physics really well. Why would those in the 90th percentile necessarily be much more drawn to physics than those in the 10th?

That is not a necessary assumption.