And do we really need to be paying as much attention to this gap as we are? I haven't heard a compelling argument for why every sector needs a 50/50 gender divide.
Since these days we're calling harmful gender stereotypes that affect men "toxic masculinity", I vote we call the stereotype that women can't do STEM "toxic femininity". It's time for society to fight against this toxic femininity.
In developing countries where more preferential treatment is given to males having a STEM degree give lot of power to women.
I don’t understand why can’t the society accept that men love machines/code. Most of the women do not enjoy this stuff(which is fine).
Gender equality paradox: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thejournal.ie/gender-equali...
If you are in India, where the difference between poor and rich is enormous then you will likely do anything for a high paying job, even if you don’t particularly like it. My Indian friends tell me about this all the time. Getting into tech is seen as a lifeboat, so don’t complain, just do anything under the sun to get there.
So of course, if you are a woman, if you can do STEM, you will. Some will enjoy it, others see it as the way to not live as unprotected lower class.
In a country like Sweden, where “poor” isn’t “poor like in India”, there is far less incentive. In a country like this, women can study more what perks their interest. Here you see a deep divide in men dominating jobs to do with “things” and women dominating jobs to do with “people”.
And how does these life choices of these Indian women differ from the life choices of the Indian men? Do they all do STEM only because they enjoy it so much? Seems like you are speculating about a subject you don't know much about.
It's secretly about increasing the available labor so that salaries can be lower
No, but it’s the default assumption for most people in the field.
> haven't heard a compelling argument for why every sector needs a 50/50 gender divide.
The argument tends to follow from the first assumption, if all preferences are learned, in a perfectly unbiased world you’d see random preferences, so most fields would be 50/50.