INSIGHT
Countries with poor women ’ s rights records appear to be offering greater opportunities in STEM subjects . Why is this the case , and how can the likes of the UK and USA reverse a worrying trend ?
IT ’ S COMMON KNOWLEDGE that there ’ s a pronounced shortage of women in technology , obvious in both universities and the workforce . But in countries with infamously appalling women ’ s rights records the number of women studying STEM subjects is far outdoing the west . So why are they falling so far behind ?
Countless studies have been done to try and figure out the answer . One is a 2009 thesis published in Psychological Bulletin that , perhaps controversially , concludes that women prefer to work with people while men favour working with “ things ” ( Men and Things , Women and People ).
Another is Professor Margaret Rossiter ’ s concept that women feel there is less support for them in the male-dominated field of STEM , and they gravitate towards areas that are traditionally believed to be more female-friendly like education and nursing .
But when did this problem begin ? It turns out that throughout history women have made huge contributions to science with little or no recognition .
8 August 2017