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by wolfgke 3430 days ago
People are free to study what they want. If there are more men who want to study a STEM subject, this will of course lead to a majority of men. Indeed, typical STEM subjects have no limitation on your A-level mark (Numerus Clausus) for being allowed to study it. So there is clearly no selective barrier to entry (Numerus Clausus) [but I'm not a native speaker of English - so it can be that "selective barriers to entry" has a subcontext in English that I'm not aware of].
1 comments
shuntress 3430 days ago
Have you ever been somewhere where it was clear everyone noticed you didn't 'fit in'?
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wolfgke 3430 days ago
> Have you ever been somewhere where it was clear everyone noticed you didn't 'fit in'?

There are multiple ways to answer the question:

1. I often don't fit in - and don't consider this as a problem.

2. I have yet to see a woman studying a STEM subject who is very skilled at it and made such complaint.

3. Saying one does not study, say, computer science because one does not fit in means that "fitting in" is more important to you than the things you learn in computer science. In other words: You don't consider CS as something really important to you. This is clearly not the inner urge for the subject that I expect from people studying it.

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hdctambien 3429 days ago
> I have yet to see a woman studying a STEM subject who is very skilled at it and made such complaint.

Seriously, you should actually talk to some of these women about their experiences.

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wolfgke 3429 days ago
> > I have yet to see a woman studying a STEM subject who is very skilled at it and made such complaint.

> Seriously, you should actually talk to some of these women about their experiences.

I have.

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a_j_c 3429 days ago
> "Have you ever been somewhere where it was clear everyone noticed you didn't 'fit in'?"

Yes, being an actual liberal in SV and not just a Dem apologist...

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FT_intern 3429 days ago
That's not possible in the tech field because the tech field is very diverse. With the high immigrant %, most people do not fit in because there is no majority/in-group. The demographic is fragmented with the immigrant groups clustering by native language and country of origin. You end up with maybe 30-40% Americans in an engineering team.
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shuntress 3429 days ago
I didn't mean specifically in the tech field.

My peers in undergrad computer science were as you described, except I would estimate 60-70% Americans, 95% male 5% female.

I now work for a small-ish company with ~25 developers on a few different teams. All men.

I understand that this is anecdotal, though not uncommon.

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