[Jabbles]

It depends what you mean by "artificially", imo. If our profession is being so badly misrepresented to the extent that women who would otherwise enjoy a career in engineering are driven elsewhere, then I think our society has a problem that we should give significant attention.

[yuvadam]

Do you feel the same way about the fact that only ~20% of social workers are men?

[charlesju]

Or worse, 90%+ of elementary school teachers are woman.

[rdrimmie]

I absolutely think it's a problem that the vast majority of elementary school teachers are women.

I don't think it's inherently terrible to have fields that are dominated by one gender or another but I do think that in the case of school teachers men are being pushed away by social forces and it's detrimental to all children to be taught only by women.

[binarysoul]

I'm interested to know why you think this is a problem?

I, for one, didn't become a teacher because the pay is terrible, I make more annually my first year out of school (programmer) than most highschool teachers make anually.

It had nothing to do with gender, more to do with money.

Also, my mom is a highly advanced math teacher (teaches AP courses, grades AP tests etc), so I think she provides a good rolemodel for women and men who want to be good at math.

[sethg]

When I was an education major, to the extent that people commented on my gender, the comments were all positive—as a teacher I would be providing kids with a “male role model”, etc.

(Of course, one of the reasons that I didn’t go on to a career in teaching is that the pay sucked. I believe that one of the reasons teachers’ pay sucks is that it’s a traditionally female occupation, and schools can recruit women who do not depend on their teaching salary for the majority of the family income.)

[larrik]

" I believe that one of the reasons teachers’ pay sucks is that it’s a traditionally female occupation, and schools can recruit women who do not depend on their teaching salary for the majority of the family income."

I never really considered that. I always assumed the pay sucked because tons of people who don't have actual career passions decide to just be a teacher instead. It's like never having to leave school and get a real job! Boy, that's going to get me some flak, but I've seen it first hand plenty of times.

For evidence, my state (Connecticut) has one of the strictest set of teacher certification requirements in the country (being a teacher here basically makes you an automatic hire in most of the rest of the country). Yet, whenever there's a teacher job opening, it gets hundreds of applicants.

The teaching profession is definitely a buyers market, and I'd bet without unions teacher salaries could be halved and still never have vacancies. No, I'm not actually saying that would be a good thing. Education provided by the lowest bidder is an awful idea.

[sethg]

I think it’s a vicious cycle.

Most of the people who apply for the jobs are mediocre because the pay sucks, and the pay sucks because the school districts don’t consider their mediocre teachers to be worth more.

(There is also, of course, a minority who teach despite the sucky pay because they actually love doing it. My understanding is that those people would rather have more autonomy in the classroom than more money.)

[bryanlarsen]

As far as I'm concerned this is a problem worse than the "no female engineers" problem. Little boys need role models and examples to grow into men. Even those with a good dad need them.

And I bet that other teachers appreciate there being a man around, just as I have found that a workplace that includes women engineers is a much nicer place to work than one that doesn't.

[FeministHacker]

It's not worse. It's not better. It's a different aspect of the same issue.

We only really develop a proper understanding of gender around the age of 7, but influences before then set up the mindstates to come, and help to drill everyone (including parents and teachers) in appropriate gender roles.

Kids see male doctors and female nurses. They have female teachers at school. When shopping for toys, the girls get pink kitchen sets and dolls, and the boys are offered machines and cars.

From a young age, our society teaches us that women are not engineers, and men are not teachers. We need to solve them both.

[binarysoul]

Barbie is a computer engineer now.

My wife is in medical school, and there are more females in medical school now than males.

In order to change these kinds of things we need to move on from the past and look forward, and stop worrying about what color toys our children have.

Personally I think we need to overhaul what kind of education is valued. As in, encourage all kids to get STEM degrees, or alternatively become lawyers or doctors. Stop encouraging kids to go to university and major in english or philosophy or... any number of majors that lack hard math / science classes.

If we get kids to major in the right kinds of things in college, I think we can stem the current unemployment recent grads are feeling (nobody is looking to hire a liberal arts psychology major, except restaurants (waiters)).

[bryanlarsen]

But it's more than that. There are lots of boys out there that never interact with men. There are lots of boys who become convinced that school is for girls and who tune out and subsequently become shut out of the entire modern economy, not just segments of it.

[bryanwb]

my wife works in public health, a field that seems to be 90% female. My wife's office is much more gender skewed than mine.

If doctors didn't make so much $, I am convinced that women would make up the majority of doctors.

[binarysoul]

My wife is in medical school, and getting a masters in public health, at the same time. Meanwhile, many of her friends have dropped out of MBA programs, or stopped working full-time to be pregnant / get married / be a home-maker.

However, there are more females in medical school now than males, it's just a matter of time as the older generation retires.

Personally, I think there would be more doctors if it didn't cost $200k+ and 4 years to get a medical degree (compare the opportunity cost vs working as a software engineer for 4 years with only a bachelors).