Male/female brain differences dictate the predominance of men and women in certain professions!

Ralphy1 said:
No matter the efforts to get more women into engineering and more men into elementary education it just hasn't produced the desired results. Men go for more of the math and science and women go for the early development and nurturing. This is a given that some just will never accept...
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Pffft.

I was besotted by science in general and chemistry in particular. I was good at maths and physics but the high school that I attended would not allow girls to study physics as a matriculation subject.

It's called channeling and I was channeled into teaching high school science because the only way I could afford university was to accept a Teachers' College Scholarship which bonded me to teach for at least five years after graduation. Boys were eligible for cadetships that funded them through engineering and guaranteed them unbonded employment at the end of their studies.
 
This long post is for Ralphy.

Things are changing. STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics

Women in STEM: On UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science, meet five scientists making strides

By Kristian Silva
Thu 11 Feb 2016


Photo: Professor Michelle Simmons is the head of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at the University of New South Wales. (Supplied: UNSW)


External Link: Read more about the UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Related Story: Female scientists who changed history
Related Story: Photos of 'heroic' researchers in wild shatter scientist stereotype


Today is the inaugural International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

In December 2015, the United Nations passed a resolution to recognise on February 11 each year women's contributions to the field.
The UN's research showed females "continued to be excluded from participating fully in science", with the number of science graduates significantly lower than males. That doesn't mean women have not excelled in science — far from it.
The ABC spoke to a number of Australian female scientists and researchers at the top of their field.

Michelle Simmons

Michelle Simmons has been tasked with creating the next supercomputer that could change the face of international business, weather forecasting and drug design. While traditional computers complete calculations in sequential order, the quantum computer will complete the tasks simultaneously, potentially resulting in a device millions of times faster. Right now, the quantum physicist is busy assembling her team at the University of Sydney, having recently being granted $46 million through government and corporate funding.

Professor Simmons said the goal was to create a commercially available quantum computer in the next decade. She likens the international race to build the quantum computer to the space race of the 20th Century.

"I think everyone recognises it's a transformational change in the way computers operate," she said. "The rationale for expanding now is we are leading internationally and for a number of years I've felt that if we don't keep that lead, the money will be transferred overseas."

The computer will not be a pocket-size device, but neither will it be like the first supercomputers that took up an entire room. Professor Simmons said it would be something in between. "My focus has been that we build something practical," she said. Professor Simmons said she would like to see more women working in quantum computing, but does not believe she has faced barriers or obstacles because of her gender.

"I’d encourage more women to go for it because it's a great field," she said. "It'd be nice to have female colleagues around but in terms of the research, when you're working at the cutting edge everyone is part of the team."

Rachael Dunlop


Photo: Dr Rachael Dunlop is part of a team identifying a link between an amino acid in blue green algae and motor neurone disease. (Supplied)


Dr Rachael Dunlop believes Australian scientists should communicate better with the public, which in turn would lead to much-needed funding.
Dr Dunlop, who was part of a team that identified a link between an amino acid in blue green algae and motor neurone disease, said any cuts to science were worrying.

"The brain drain in this country is real and it's going to have a huge impact on us," she said. "In terms of the return on investment for medical science, the return is three or four-fold. Economically it makes no sense to cut money from an industry that is making money. "I think we have a responsibility to explain to the public what we're doing. Sometimes when our funding gets cut, we haven't got the support for the public."

Dr Dunlop was optimistic about equality in her field, saying the gender split was about half.

"That's not to say there's not inequity. Women aren't paid as much and there's not as much mentorship that goes on," she said.

Dr Dunlop is a visiting associate at Macquarie University, and is working in conjunction with the Institute of EthnoMedicine in Wyoming, USA, on more motor neurone disease research. Further work is needed to determine what exactly causes the disease, but scientists do know its prevalence is higher in coastal areas where there is greater exposure to the toxic algae.

"It probably requires a faulty gene, combined with the toxin, combined with something like a head injury," Dr Dunlop said.

Nicknamed Dr Rachie, Dr Dunlop regularly writes about health in the media, is the vice-president of Australian Skeptics Inc and has an active presence on social media. She is also a passionate pro-vaccine campaigner, and said she was "infuriated" by the anti-vaccine movement.

"The myths they perpetuate could lead to illness and, in the worst case scenario, death in children," she said. "We need to maintain trust in the public health initiatives and they undermine that."

Janet Lanyon


Photo: Dr Janet Lanyon leads a research team examining dugongs along Queensland's coast. (Supplied: The University of Queensland)

University of Queensland researcher Janet Lanyon has spent more than 30 years researching dugongs — docile creatures known as the "ladies of the sea". Dr Lanyon leads a research team that examines the mammals along Queensland's coast — an area where population numbers have fallen in recent decades.

"They're susceptible to being captured in nets, harvested for food, they get hit by boats and there may be health issues as well."

While regular water pollution is a hazard, events such as floods and cyclones also cause problems for dugongs because sediment washes into their habitats and can kill seagrass.

Dr Lanyon's research found dugongs behaved differently to whales when it came to migration — they don't travel huge journeys and instead prefer to spend the bulk of their lives in set areas. Over time that has led to small genetic differences between groups.

Dr Lanyon's team, which has assistance from Sea World, is now conducting further genetic research in Queensland.

"We have a fantastic team of volunteers. The same people have been working with me for years and they're so dedicated," Dr Lanyon said.
Getting dugong samples can be quite the process if researchers want in-depth information such as faecal samples or conducting ultrasounds. The animals need to be caught and then hoisted onto a boat, where they stay for about half an hour and are then released.

"Once you capture them they just sit quietly in the water, many will try to get away from you in the first minute or two," Dr Lanyon said.
"They're pretty docile, like cows in a way."

Tamara Davis


Photo: Dr Tamara Davis is working with the brightest international minds to find out more about dark energy. (Supplied: The University of Queensland)

Tamara Davis first became interested in space when she saw Halley's Comet as a child. Thirty years on, Dr Davis is working with Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Brian Schmidt and several hundred of the brightest international minds to find out more about dark energy. A relatively recent discovery, dark energy suggests the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate.

Dr Davis's speciality is measuring how soundwaves from the early universe have affected gas patterns millions of kilometres away.

"Once you have measured these soundwaves in the distribution of galaxies, it's like laying grid paper over the universe," she said. "You can measure how much the universe is expanding and you can measure how fast galaxies are growing."Dr Davis believes dark energy could hold the key to extraordinary technological advances on earth and in space. But she admitted the researchers' "a ha moment" had not quite come yet.

"We've discovered anti-gravity, so if we can harness that maybe we will have new forms of propulsion," she said. "Maybe we will have a way to make a new type of clean energy."

Dr Davis said she had felt nothing but support from male colleagues, but said being a female in the astrophysics field had been challenging. Finding work-related female role models was tough, and she believed there were sometimes subtle biases that make it harder for women.

"Sometimes when I'm the expert in the room I'm not the person called on to answer the question," Dr Davis said. "But I just get on with it ... I've never felt any slight."

Alice Williamson


Photo: A malaria specialist at the University of Sydney, Dr Alice Williamson says there is an urgency for scientists to work together to have medicines ready in the case of a malaria outbreak. (Supplied)

Alice Williamson says the outbreak of the Zika virus, and news a vaccine is years away, is proof scientists need to work together more.
Finding cures for diseases or designing drugs can often be a top-secret project, with groups of competitive scientists working independently of each other around the world. Dr Williamson, a malaria specialist at the University of Sydney, is part of a project aiming to buck the trend. She is part of the Open Source Malaria group, trying to find a new treatment for the disease before strains of the parasite that resist existing medication reach Africa.

"If this resistance spreads where the majority of cases are, it would be a real disaster so we need to have a medicine ready. There is a real urgency," she said.

Open Source Malaria members publish their research in real time and make the data available — a policy Dr Williamson said would hopefully reduce overlapping and scientists making the same mistakes as each other. It means lucrative patents may be forfeited, but for a disease like malaria — which had an estimated 438,000 victims in 2015 — but Dr Williamson said scientists had a "responsibility" to produce affordable cures.

"If we don't put patents on our drugs and we find something good, hopefully we can get it to market as soon as possible," she said.
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QuickSilver said:
I'm not sure how much is "hard wired" and how much is simply cultural.. I excelled in math and science in grade school, consistently scoring #1 in my class in the Standardized tests.. But somehow, around puberty I and most girls were given the silent message that girls weren't supposed to be good in those things. We weren't supposed to be able to compete in math and sciences... and the boys ZOOMED way ahead. It was unspoken, but one would have had to be completely oblivious to NOT pick it up. By the time we were in High school... Girls seldom received guidance counseling and if they did, they were funneled into the more "female" professions of teaching, nursing, secretay, and first and foremost... wife and mother.. I should have gone to Med school, but blew my chance by getting married way to young. I did eventually go into nursing.. but again... a pale second to my real potential. It's better now for females... but still not on par with males.
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I agree. I also wonder how much of it, at least nowdays, is the resistance of males to females entering their formerly all-male professions. I know it isn't supposed to go on, but it absolutely does.
 
Shalimar said:
Really, my son ran at nine months, talked at a year. Spoke complete language at two and a half, has not stopped talking since.
works in a supervisory position, where he communicates all day long. Kissed the blarney stone, he romanced it! He has

excellent orienteering skills, spacial concepts etc, degree in psychology in a university which taught it as a science, loves

technology, but wants to work with people. Currently, he is working on his first science fiction fantasy novel. He is a dungeon

master in D and D games. Plays airsoft. High energy like his mother. Very empathetic. Better people skills than I. Loves his cats as children.His wife has a scientific mind.
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Gee. You could at least be proud of him! :laugh: I'm happy for you, Shali.
 
Being a mathemetician or scientist pays better than being in education and since men are programmed to be the breadwinners maybe this is part of the reason why they show less interest in education or nurturing occupations than women.

Women can do anything they set their minds to so I feel it's 100% conditioning guiding them away from scientific careers and into nurturing, which we were built for, let's face it. But that never means a woman can't do as well as a man in any of the maths or sciences. If it isn't happening I think it's not happening for those reasons.
 
But it is happening. Here is just one example.

This young woman has been named Queensland Young Australian of the Year for 2016.
She happens to be a professional mechanical engineer.
What makes Yassmin Abdel-Magied a turbocharged engineer?

Yassmin.jpg

Mechanical engineer, Yassmin Abdel-Magied, is comfortable on an oil rig, under the hood of a race car, on the red carpet and chairing international conferences. Born in Sudan, Yassmin moved to Queensland at the age of two and quickly made her mark in the community.

As an engineering student, Yassmin used to run the University of Queensland's Formula SAE Team. “Seeing my chassis actually being built, welding and putting it together and then actually watching it being driven around the racetrack was something that is beyond rewarding,” she recalls.

Her passion for cars also led to a common misconception about engineers and the role they play. “I cannot recall the number of people who have asked me to fix their cars; change their oil or fiddle with their spark plugs. I tell them: ‘Look, I can, but that’s not because I studied engineering. It's just because I really like cars.’”

She is founder and president of Youth Without Borders, a not-for profit organization that introduces grade 10 to 12 high school students to the marvelous world of engineering. At 23, Yassmin has accomplished a lot, but one gets the sense that she has only just started.
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See my post apologizing to Shali today. The cultural barriers are pretty much down but the numbers will always be skewed in certain careers favoring men or women in certain professions because of our inherently different biology. This met with resistance when presented in the past as it does by some today. The evolution from a patriarchal society is probably at the root of this resistance as women are still angry at their lack of opportunity in the past...
 
Perhaps but I'm more inclined to see a parallel with the way women were long excluded from medicine and the legal profession.

Men in prestigious professions don't like sharing with women and tend to erect barriers.
Many women accept the barriers because they buy the biological argument.

I don't.
 
As I have said, a lot of women just won't accept what the research shows. I have been accused of making vast generalizations by very defensive women, but I would tell them that these generalizations are used to present a truth about us that applies to the vast majority...
 



http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/truth-women-stem-careers/
Cummins.Labor-force-1024x508.png


At the Ph.D. level, women have clearly achieved equity in the biosciences and social sciences, are nearly there (40 percent) in mathematics and the physical sciences, and are “over-represented” in psychology (78 percent). Again, the only fields in which men greatly outnumber women are computer science and engineering.
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The article in the link does go on to say that there are some gender preferences, but, that capabilities aren't gender specific.
 
The freeing up of society has allowed women to gain parity in many fields (even in politics where we might have a female president). It is politically incorrect to even mention gender differences these days, but if you look at us you should realize that they exist. Math and engineering will be dominated by men as will elementary teaching and nursing be dominated by women...
 
Yeah, allowing women. This talk sounds more like wounded male ego than anything to do with political correctness nonsense. If my footnote was looked at, one would see reference to acknowledgement of the fact that the article speaks of there being some innate gender differences. There are some differences in men and women, there's no doubt about it, there are also some influences that are more in line with preference and culture influences and adaptations.

BTW, I am happy for the many differences in the genders, I love all that makes us different and the same as well. I am very attracted to things about men and wouldn't look to women for those traits, but when it comes to mental skill set even playing field for the most part maybe with a strong leaning to the female side. :D
 
I grew up in a family totally comprised of females and so there is no wounded ego. When I pursued certain avenues of interest and presented programs in them some men couldn't understand why I would do such a thing, but I was well aware that women wanted to know things like why the emotional intimacy had gone out their marriages, why men put careers over family, etc., etc....
 
Times have changed in the past sixty or seventy years. So has thinking? Emotional immaturity,re relationships, often attributed to males, is a cultural rather than gender specific trait. I see far less of it in my male kid's generation than in the previous ones.
my mother and aunt put,their careers first, they certainly were not the only ones. Neither were they nurturing.Careers were not de rigeur for women of that era, often the contempt they received made them cold and harsh. Now, we have a growing

number of house husbands, choosing to stay home with their kids, some, but not all, work from home. Things are changing.
 
My interest in women's concerns grew out of listening to the women in the family talk about boyfriends, husbands, etc. A female social worker asked me to help with parent education to provide a male perspective. These programs we built into continuous ones rather than ones of short duration, and once again I was listening to questions about the behavior of boys and men. This led to the adult life programs that were attended almost complete by women at the community college while the men jammed into the electronic and motorcycle maintenance...
 
Warri, I went to a radio school right out of high school, a typical male pursuit in those days. After maturing a little, I became more interested in Einstein's personal life rather than his professional one, and his male behavior was rather classic. His theories, I find hard pressed to grasp...;)
 
Ralphy1 said:
Warri, I went to a radio school right out of high school, a typical male pursuit in those days. After maturing a little, I became more interested in Einstein's personal life rather than his professional one, and his male behavior was rather classic. His theories, I find hard pressed to grasp...;)
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Yeah, real classic - had a daughter he never saw, married his first cousin, was sending love letters to another woman while his wife was pregnant - real classic. :mad:
 

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