Above, images from Penn's female-focused GEMS program.
By John Murawski, RealClearInvestigations
May 7, 2020
Women have outnumbered men in obtaining college degrees for more than three decades, but that success story is complicated by a puzzling exception: Only about one in five undergraduate degrees in computer sciences and engineering are awarded to women in the United States.
Informed by the assumption that men and women are essentially the same, many attribute this disparity to discrimination – a pervasive culture of bias, harassment and stereotyping in science that sends the false message that boys are better at science than girls.
A 2015 paper titled “The ABC of Gender Equality in Education: Aptitude, Behaviour, Confidence” concluded that “aptitude knows no gender.” These researchers attributed the disparity to students’ self-confidence, or lack thereof, and urged teachers to become more cognizant of their gender biases. The researchers noted that young men are three times more likely than young women to pursue studies in science-related fields, such as engineering, manufacturing and construction.
This framing of the issue informs a wide array of single-sex programs – from coding camps to scholarships -- aimed at helping females overcome perceived sexist obstacles. It has also helped create a culture of zero tolerance for suggestions that innate differences, rather than societal cues, may explain some of the disparities.
Case in point: Google engineer James Damore was fired for violating the technology giant’s code of conduct after he wrote an internal memo in 2017 criticizing Google’s “ideological echo chamber” on gender issues, and for giving credence to the biological theory as a contributing factor to female under-representation in tech jobs. Similarly, Lawrence Summers was unseated as Harvard University’s president in 2005 after he suggested that biological differences may explain why men outperform women at the very highest levels of math and science.
A growing body of scientific evidence – discussed at length in political scientist Charles Murray’s new book, “Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class” – suggests that the gender imbalance is at least partially explained by innate differences between the sexes. And if that’s the case, trying to correct the gender disparity may be akin to tinkering with human nature, or largely futile.
Main Article: The Growing Backlash Against Female-Only School Programs
Mark Perry, a University of Michigan professor of finance and business economics, says these studies show two related findings: Men are more widely distributed on the quantitative intelligence scale than women. That is, they are more likely to either excel or to struggle with math and science.
A 2007 paper, “The Science of Sex Differences in Science and Mathematics,” found that “these differences can be seen as early as adolescence, and, therefore, a greater number of males than females may qualify for advanced training in disciplines that place a premium on mathematical reasoning and/or visuospatial abilities,” the paper states.
This doesn’t mean there are no women at the highest and lowest performance levels; it just means there are fewer of them at those extremes.
What’s more, women tend to be well-rounded while men are more likely to be one-dimensional. That is, boys who excel at STEM may not have a particularly strong language aptitude and related cognitive skills, so they are more likely to choose, or be channeled into, STEM classes. Girls who are gifted at STEM are also more likely to have strong language and other skills, so that they have a wider choice of careers.
The combination of those two factors could explain why fewer women choose STEM careers, he said.
A 2018 paper, “The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education,” addressed what is known as the Nordic paradox: The most liberal countries on women’s rights issues tend to have the most dramatic gender disparities in STEM fields.
“Paradoxically, the sex differences in the magnitude of relative academic strengths and pursuit of STEM degrees rose with increases in national gender equality,” the paper states. “We found that countries with high levels of gender equality have some of the largest STEM gaps in secondary and tertiary education.”
The researchers found the most pronounced gender gaps in Finland, Norway and Sweden. They concluded that the comfortable standard of living in those countries relieved the economic pressure for women to go into the highest-paying fields, including science and technology.
The researchers also said that Nordic girls’ superior skills in language and reading gave them the option to pick other fields of study.