Hacker News Reader

Comment by cropsieboss | Hacker News Reader

Even if there is bias, in what position is Google to fix it? Unconscious bias retraining does not work.

If bias exists it is culturally and biologically motivated and that can only be fixed by changing the culture significantly.

Women in free cultures do not like STEM. That is a fact. In countries where gender roles are being silenced (that's a good thing) women dislike STEM even more!

I went to a STEM focused high-school that had equal numbers of women and men (3000 students). Not the same percentage went for STEM fields after graduation. Women were also more successful during high-school. Every year the questionnaire confirms that women just aren't interested in STEM and go to fields that deal with people much more (medicine and similar social fields - rehabilitation, working with children with disabilities, social work etc.))

View on HN

> Unconscious bias retraining does not work.

Interesting assertion without a citation! Unfortunately, you are wrong. A good meta analysis reference: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~banaji/research/publicati.... I can provide more if you like. I encourage you to review the literature.

> Women in free cultures do not like STEM. That is a fact.

Another interesting assertion! I'll let you do the homework finding citations about how you're wrong here.

> I went to a STEM focused high-school ... blah blah blah

Nice anecdote! Is there anything else about high school that you'd like to generalize to the entire population of the world?

> Unfortunately, you are wrong.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frederick_Oswald/public...

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308926636_A_Meta-An...

I can provide more if you like.

Show me a study that measures gender bias, does an educational intervention and succeeds in improving that measure significantly. None exist. At best they do not work.

> I'll let you do the homework finding citations about how you're wrong here.

Cool, good thing I did my homework. I'm quite aware that percentage of women in STEM is increasing every year. Check out research for countries that have successfully removed gender roles.

> Nice anecdote! Is there anything else about high school that you'd like to generalize to the entire population of the world?

Good thing that there's research confirming the same thing. Although I was not generalizing. The 3000 students and the results of questionnaire every year are pretty consistent. I'm sure someone will do a study on the data, will link to it surely when it happens. Although, I'm sure it will not matter given that you value meta-analysis but only those that confirm your bias.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com