Quote: (11-18-2014 08:25 PM)RickyGP Wrote:
I am just wondering if science and technology is missing women who would kick ass in these fields?
I would say, NO. I don't think curiosity is the main issue. For one thing, men think more logically and mathematically(on average,) whereas women are more emotional. That's why men excel in these fields. Science and mathematics are emotionless. They don't care what gender you are and all that matters is if you can deliver the empirical data.
If anything, there is a tremendous amount of societal pressure to get women into these areas. It's much easier to get women into the corporate fields where there are a lot of different ways for a person to be effective. In technology, you either can solve the equations or you can't. Also, to reach a high level of technical expertise to the extent that you would have a major position requires an incredible commitment to learning. If a woman takes a break to have a couple kids, she's going to be way behind.
There's a reason why the stereotype of the "computer programmer geek"
exists. It's because one often has to sacrifice any social life or dating startng at a young age, to dedicate themselves to master these incredibly complicated systems. Sometimes this is done involuntarily(a kid sucks at sports and is awkward so he stays inside and starts reading astronomy books.) Even unattractive women typically always have plenty of attention. Rarely are they forced to become completely isolated to where they would build a high tolerance to boring subjects and turn their energy to weird science stuff.
I don't consider myself a nerd or a bad looking guy, but I can easily look back at time periods in my life where I went 6 months without hanging out with or talking to anyone and became enveloped in my own tedious(non-scientific) projects. A lot of girls can't even watch an old black and white movies 20 minutes without getting bored. They're just not used to it.
Any woman who wants to entire the tech industry would be welcomed if she has the answers. It's just not something you can BS your way through. Either you can program the spaceship's master computer or you can't. Getting a job at most normal companies is based on personality and background credentials. If you want to work in a technical job at Microsoft or somewhere similar, you will undergo rigorous testing and you will have to prove exactly what you know.
Here's a classic video on gender gaps: