(June 7, 2015 at 6:01 am)TheMessiah Wrote: Being male-dominated isn't necessarily a problem - that just evidences that men are more likely to opt for that job. Women, if they really want to, can opt for those jobs if they want --- but once you look at University stats, we find that women like to choose different subjects, despite having the opportunity to choose traditional subjects -- that's what happens when you give equal opportunity.
I don't think ''lack of role models'' is the serious problem, if women want it, then go get it - they have the means to do so.
What happens is that when recruiting for a job people have biases that they don't recognise. They know what kind of people have done well at the job in the past and which ones don't. So they give preference to candidates that match their idea of an ideal candidate. What they don't realise that they don't know all the possible types of people who will be good at the job. So you end up with a gender imbalance. And not just against women or ethnic minorities. It also explains the shortage of men in women dominated fields, for example teachers at Kindergarten / nursery schools.
Secondly, you say if women want it then go get it. Well if they don't see people like them doing a particular career then they are less likely to properly consider it and therefore don't develop the desire to do the career. But some women will still do the career. I work in a male dominated field myself and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that these are major concerns.
Just a few weeks ago we had someone come round and give a lecture about hidden biases at work, which incidentally is a silver award winner of Athena Swan which recognises equality in the workplace. It's the first place I have ever worked which has had a fair gender balance and it's a world renowned organisation.
And just because you don't recognise the problem does not mean to say that it does not exist. There are studies showing this discrimination happens. A famous one is when they sent the same CV to a whole load of academics and asked them to rate the candidate in terms of how much they would pay them, whether they would hire them and whether they were likely to receive promotion. Sometimes they sent out the same CV with a male name, and sometimes with a female name and this radically changed the responses they received.
