Sex and STEM: Stubborn Facts and Stubborn Ideologies
I&#x27;m a PhD student at a UK university. From what I&#x27;ve seen in my department
(Engineering) there are about 3 women for every 5 men, both in staff and
students, a not unreasonable ratio. However, I struggle to remember more than
a couple of women who are British or from an English-speaking country. The
majority come from India, China, the rest of Europe, the Middle East etc.<p>I&#x27;ve also seen this in the six years I worked in the UK as a developer, before
starting my PhD. Of the women developers I worked with, (in this case, not so
many) the majority were Indian or Eastern or Southern European. The same goes
for the students in my data science Masters (also in a UK university).<p>Other women I&#x27;ve discussed this with, have similar experiences. In particular
Greek women (like myself) don&#x27;t remember any perception of a strong bias in
numbers against women in STEM subjects. I have a fair few Greek women friends
who have bachelors or master&#x27;s degrees in computer science.<p>All this is of course anecdotal but it makes me think there is some sort of
bias that is not explained by &quot;interest in things&quot; vs &quot;interest in people&quot;, or
any such difference between the sexes, because it is particular to specific
cultures, rather than to the sexes around the globe.<p>In any case &quot;gendered interest&quot; sounds like a convenient oversimplification
that seeks to confirm cultural bias as natural and spontaneous, rather than
an attempt to understand it. Instead of answering any questions it passes the
buck; it leaves someone else to wonder <i>why</i> girls and boys are interested in
different things (e.g. fire trucks vs barbie dolls). The same goes for
academic performance in school: that is also an observation that requires an
explanation- not an explanation in and of itself.