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Comment by Almaviva | Hacker News Reader

"Even better, a majority of Biology degrees in 2012 (58%) were earned by women."

Why is it "better" that men are underrepresented in a particular discipline of science?

I think it is because of the general "you go girl!" perception in modern American society, where most things that showcase female achievement are celebrated, no matter what their far-reaching implications are for the rest of society. This manifests itself in numerous ways, including this one.

"Even better" in the sense that there is actually a STEM field that has a slightly majority of women as majors, as compared to the rest that are below a 1:1 ratio. So it helps even out the ratio for STEM fields as a whole a little bit -- but obviously not enough.

Look further up in the article where it's mentioned that women make up 60% of the undergraduate population in general. In this case, 58% is just approaching gender parity adjusted for base-line admissions.

(I think) this merely redirects the question to, "Why isn't it an overriding concern that men are underrepresented in the undergraduate population in general?"

To many in higher education, it is a fairly acute concern, and one they're working on figuring out the root causes of.

Seriously, the underperformance of boys in school and the declining number of men, and especially minority men, in higher ed. is a pretty active area of discussion in both education and most gender studies departments.

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