The Science Of Feminism: 9 Studies Of Gender (In)Equality

The obvious lack of women in STEM subjects has long been a cause for investigation and discussion, but what is it exactly about different subjects that carry a gender bias?

It is not just a case of science vs. humanities, as there are some science fields in which women dominate (in 2011, 54% of U.S. Ph.D.’s in molecular biology were women), and some humanities fields in which men dominate (in 2011 only 31% of philosophy PhDs went to women), so what is the defining difference?

Well, in a paper published on sciencemag.org, some experts believe that it is down to whether people think that a subject requires more innate talent or hard work It's basically a Sherlock Holmes vs. Hermione Granger scenario, in which men are expected to be more likely to possess and innate brilliance for subjects such a physics and philosophy, whereas women are more likely to succeed with when diligence and hard work are the key factors for success, such as in English Literature.

This research is not saying that this is true and there is no statistical evidence to suggest that either gender is more likely to be hard working or a genius, but just the perception that this is true is enough.

This data has been tested as a pretty reliable predictor of whether a field will be dominated by men or women, but to ascertain why this is the case will take further study.