Comment Societal issue, perhaps? (Score 1) 490
I think a lot of this gender inequality in certain fields is less due to the fields and more to do with how children are raised to begin with. Granted, I don't have any scientific evidence to back it up, but from what I see perpetuated by parents and in the entertainment industry (particularly in the past), I feel this has some merit.
My wife and I never forced our daughter to do the things girls are "supposed to do". She'll be going into the 7th grade next year and will be taking advanced courses in every subject. She excels in math and science and will be taking her math classes with the 9th grade and getting several high school credits for other courses as well.
She has, and has had, many friends who are boys as well as girls. The way parents treat their children based on gender, from an early age, is astounding to me. Most dress their daughters in cute pink dresses and show them Disney princess movies and get them play kitchens. To me it seems that they are being taught from an early age that they need to spend time in the kitchen and rely on a man to take care of them.
I got those things for my daughter as well when she asked for them. But I also got her toy dinosaurs when she wanted them as well as Nerf guns, and scifi movies, etc. Stuff that most parents got for their sons only. I also got her tons of books and read to her from and early age. She had a computer before she was 2 years old too.
When my daughters friends, who are boys, are afraid of something that my daughter is not afraid of; their parents will try to shame them because they won't do something that a girl will do. It's not just the fathers that do this either. We were at a picnic along a river a few years ago and some of the kids were fishing. My daughter had no issues putting a worm on a hook. Some of the boys were afraid to even touch a worm. The mothers were telling them they needed to "man up" because my daughter could do it.
There very well may be issues within some of these industries, but I think we may need to look at society and how we teach our children from an early age too.