Out of curiosity, why are there slightly more women than men in natural sciences? Is there research done on this? What are the causes and possible remedies of this gender disparity?

Lung_doc · 2020-04-22T23:41:16+00:00

There are more women getting Bachelor's and PhD degrees in just about every field except almost all engineering degrees, computer science, physics, math and economics.

One of the biggest differences seems to be the math requirement. My biology degree required only one semester of college level calculus, which I had AP credit for and that was it. Med school did not require any additional math either (though most have since added a stats requirement).

So the question is probably more "why don't women want to major in math heavy majors". And why aren't men getting though higher ed to the extent they used to, rather than something special about the biological sciences.

https://www.statista.com/chart/15685/doctoral-degrees-awarded-by-broad-field-and-gender-in-the-us/

funnystor · 2020-04-22T20:26:15+00:00

There used to be more men, we spent a lot of effort on messaging that science is for women too, now there are slightly more women. Seems like the effort worked. If the proportion of men shrinks further, we should probably consider effort in the opposite direction, eg encouraging more men into natural sciences.

AskingToFeminists · 2020-04-22T23:36:26+00:00

Could it be that more women enroll in natural sciences because there are more women going in higher education?

cromulent_weasel · 2020-04-22T22:41:59+00:00

Do slight differences even matter?

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