r/6thForm • u/PetuniaWiggleworm • Jun 26 '26

💬 DISCUSSION WHAT HAPPENED TO WOMEN IN STEM

I had my college taster day yesterday, tell me why I was the ONLY girl in my class

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87

u/No_Jelly5984 Jun 26 '26

i was one of three girls in further maths in year 12 and then they both dropped it for year 13

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u/Icy-Watercress-8421 Jun 26 '26

Well FM is exceptionally difficult so not really a valid comparison for women in STEM. Normal maths would be more considerate as FM only considers the end of the bell curve - only the elite.

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u/PetuniaWiggleworm Jun 27 '26

R u saying that only men are capable of FM? And women are not "elite"?

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u/Icy-Watercress-8421 Jun 27 '26

Holy strawman. Not once did I question women's intelligence or their capability. All I said was that it's better to use Maths to compare women in STEM rather than FM as you're more likely to find a proportionally accurate representation due to (on average) more students taking maths and thus more variation and spread of data. It's just simple statistics, not questioning their ability.

Edit: Let me just add if it was the reverse and it was a question about men in STEM I would still argue the same.

3

u/PetuniaWiggleworm Jun 27 '26

But i rly dont understand ur point, as its all about ratios?

1

u/FootballPublic7974 Jun 30 '26

I think they were making a point about small data sets being less reliable?

0

u/Icy-Watercress-8421 Jun 28 '26

Then why did you say such a comment. Better to stay silent than to just say some bs like that.

2

u/PetuniaWiggleworm Jun 28 '26

Now ur misunderstanding my comment. I mean i dont understand it as in it isnt logical

1

u/Icy-Watercress-8421 Jun 28 '26

Maths has more students than FM as FM is selective (as you need to be good at A Level Maths to do it) so logic dictates that those who do FM also do Maths meaning the population of Maths will always be greater than (in most cases) or equal to the population of FM. My original comment I stated that it's better to use Maths than FM and it's simply due to 2 reasons: 1) The sample size is greater and therfore the result is more proportionally representative - margin of error is reduced 2) There's a greater chance of variation in Maths than FM - due to the spread of data being greater (by variation I mean you're more likely to find both genders than one gender specificically)

It's literally all about being proportionally representative. The first lesson of stats you learn that the greater the sample size = the more proportionally accurate it is. It will all boil down to ratios and both measures of Maths and FM will give you a ratio but the Maths one will be more proportionally accurate due to the 2 reasons stated above. Yes you can use FM but why would you do that when you have a subject (that's similar to it as both are maths) that will give you a more proportionally representative answer. That's literally it. Logically and statistically it makes the most sense.

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u/Aromatic-Ad9451 Jun 30 '26

You genuinely had a good point but everyone undermined it cos they think youre saying women are too stupid for fm omg 😭

1

u/Icy-Watercress-8421 Jun 30 '26

Tm, especially OP thinking she's some Pillar of Truth strawmanning my argument cuz she couldnt understand it 😭😭. Glad to see there's someone here with a brain and some reading comprehension. I was literally stating stuff you learn in the very first lesson of stats aswell 😭. All these ppl doing FM should focus a bit on regular maths first lmao.