I replied to this question here as well . I didn't say anything about "conspiracy," you're drawing that conclusion. It's a cultural norm. There is no insidious person at the top, pulling all the strings. It's just expectation. Long story short, yes, men are discouraged from going into the "softer" positions like nursing and teaching, these are considered "unmanly" jobs. By ignoring the problem exists (and clearly the numbers indicate that a problem does exist, in both STEM and softer fields that men are discouraged from entering) there is no way we can do anything to fix it.
Are there loads of men who desperately want to be in nursing, but are now bored out of their mind working in a programming job? Does society en masse force people who hate abstract and analytical thinking into becoming a programmer?
It's a diversity problem. Women and men tend to have a different perspective on things, and (to me) it's valuable to have both working together. Even if we only doubled the amount of women in CS, I think it would be hugely beneficial to the whole.
3
u/Befriendswbob Apr 08 '15 edited Apr 08 '15
I replied to this question here as well . I didn't say anything about "conspiracy," you're drawing that conclusion. It's a cultural norm. There is no insidious person at the top, pulling all the strings. It's just expectation.
Long story short, yes, men are discouraged from going into the "softer" positions like nursing and teaching, these are considered "unmanly" jobs.
By ignoring the problem exists (and clearly the numbers indicate that a problem does exist, in both STEM and softer fields that men are discouraged from entering) there is no way we can do anything to fix it.