Funny, the ability to dedicate a life to a specific topic was one of the reasons that led Louis Leaky to pick three women to study the great apes.
Have a look at Diane Fossey, Biruté Galdikas and Jane Goodall and try to say again that women can't have total dedication to one topic.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

That surprises me. But then, perhaps it's to attract women in an effort to balance things out in an office. I know my office (~100 engineers) is way light on women. Not enough good candidates, it seems.

We're hiring, by the way.

There are two very important points that I haven't seen anyone here address:

1. the media (including the Science Daily article linked by OP) are reporting the exact opposite of what this study found. Here's a good summary of the situation:
Marginal Revolution
City Journal

Don't you think it's a little scary when science says A and the media reports (not A)?

Point 2 (touched on in the above links) the study's actual findings show that while the average is the same for men and women, there are more men at the top and (this is my point 2) there are more men at the bottom - more men than women are bad at math - but nobody cares. Just like how there are more homeless men than women, and more men with psychiatric problems. Nobody cares. They look at the top and see more millionaires and more geniuses and more professors (professors are taken from the top few percentile) and they cry sexism. But nobody looks at the bottom of society and sees anything wrong.

For my own part, I think there is clear evidence for genetic differences in brain function that lead to differences among groups. I think that this fact should NEVER be used to assume something about an individual (for example, I think it would be morally wrong to say, "we exclude women from this job because on average, men are better at it" because saying that excludes individual women who are better than individual men). I know for a fact that some individual men and some individual women are sexist and discriminate on that basis. I think our society is aware of and watchful for that behavior, and that we don't tolerate it anymore. I think people really do have the opportunity to do whatever they want to do. I don't think women are systematically oppressed by society anymore. However, I do think that men are systematically oppressed by society in family courts in particular, and around children in general. That's where there's real sexism in our society, but nobody cares.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I've hired way more women scientists than men. The reason is simple: Way more women applied.

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Olsen the moderator.

Pretty much, yeah. But it's not just hunting and gathering. It's also childcare for women, and territoriality for men (which, like hunting, involves intense focus).

Interesting quote by Dr. Helen Fisher from this TED talk. "Women tend to get intimacy differently than men do. Women get intimacy from face to face talking. We swivel toward each other, we do what we call the anchoring gaze, and we talk. This is intimacy to women. I think it comes from millions of years of holding that baby in front of your face, cajoling it, educating it with words. Men tend to get intimacy from side by side doing. As soon as one guy looks up, the other guy will look away. I think it comes from millions of years of hiding behind a bush, waiting to hit that buffalo with a rock."

It's amusing to me that people would except our brains to be exactly alike, and expect equal outcomes in areas like math and science.

You have addressed some good points, IMO. Men outnumber women on both the high and low end of intelligence and certain abilities. Men outnumber women among the homeless, and men commit suicide 4 times more often than women (though women attempt suicide 10 times more often than men), but society isn't really interested in equal protection under the law with regard to sex. At least not US society. If it did, there would be more effort to provide equal protection in so-called Family Court.

Few people seem to be aware that equal pay for equal work regardless of sex has been the law of the land in the US since the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

That doesn't mean such discrimination doesn't happen, but legal recourse is there, and has been used in large class-actions suits like the one against Wal-Mart.

As far back as the 1960's, unmarried women college professors earned considerably more than unmarried men college professors. IIRC the difference was greater than 30% in favor of women.

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Olsen the moderator.

I've heard that within New York City and many other major US cities that females under the age of 35 earn more than males under the age of 35. The fact is, there' already affirmative action for men in US medical schools, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of medical students in Canada are female (where there's no affirmative action). The trend, for now, clearly favors females.

Is your story related to the demographics of the local prison population by any chance?

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Olsen the moderator.

I wouldn't have known about "medical students" (which means students seeking an MD, and maybe possibly includes those seeking to be a PA, although I don't know about that). But I have noticed that women outnumber men by multiples to one in the other degreed or certified medical professions (nurses, imaging technicians, other kinds of lab technicians, phlebotomists; all but the last require an Associate's or Bachelor's degree). Being a medical radiology student myself, I was not expecting to see that in my radiology-related classes because that field primarily attracted me as an application of technology, not so much because of the human element to it. But I guess most people who are into technology find other outlets for it instead of this one.

Taking these classes I've been in lately with other radiology students, nursing students, ultrasound students, and such was quite a shift from the first time I went to college, with a major where men outnumbered women just about as thoroughly (forestry).

I get the feeling I've written about this recently... maybe at another forum, though...

Is it because women population is larger than men population?

It's not only medical courses are populated by women but in other fields too. More and more women and taking Engineering courses . In my time, on a population of 30 per class , there are only 5-10 women.

It's called affirmative action, I think.

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Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you."

I'm not sure this is true any more. In today's society (at least over here in Europe) there are few housewives left. Having to support a family is probably far behind getting an interesting job and making mad money* for themselves in the priorities if men. People who are interested study engineering, not people who think it makes money.

*Apparently "making mad money" is something you have to be on MTV for to do, or do I draw the wrong conclusions from my infrequent observations of pop culture?

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Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you."

Well, I'm at the University of Colorado studying Aerospace Engineering, and at least here, there is no such trend. The class I am in in the College of Engineering consists of about 78% men and 22% women IIRC. My parents, who both attended the University of Colorado for electrical engineering, recall similar statistics.

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WANTED:

Schroedinger's Cat

Dead And Alive

I was one of 4 girls out of 50.
And it wasn't even hard engineering - it was comp sci with a signalling focus.
When I was working with the local brand of the women into tech initiative, I learned that apparently chemistry, biology, astronomy and medicine have already a >50% female student ratio. Mathematics is pretty precisely 50% - apparently it takes a real geek to study maths, and those are equally spread

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Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you."

Then:

Men = Providers
Women = Nurturers

Now :

Men + Women = Providers & Nurturers


just my opinion.

It isn't all based on equality either.

I mean these days, two people HAVE to be working just to make ends meet sometimes.

But anyway... One thing I've observed personally...
Women complain about certain things men do- which I see women doing all the time too.
And men complain about the things women do- yet I see men doing the same things...

I think the genders are different and all but uhhh... Not all THAT different.

Women = Providers + Nuturers - Men

QED

Well there are also :

Men = Providers + Nurturers - Women

Hmmm, what's the cross product?

I think that's the most profound thing you have said in a while, neverfly.

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Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you."

Not astronomy and math. See the AWIS link I gave above. The difference grows as you move up the ladder (undergrad->grad->postdoc->researcher), and the top levels haven't changed much in the past 15-20 years.

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"What do you care what other people think?" -- Richard Feynman
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." -- Feynman, at the conclusion of his Challenger report

No, not on the top level, but there were definitely a lot more girls than boys in all the astronomy classes I ever saw. But then it might be different in the US, I was quoting European statistics.

The top level is the problem. There are enough girls learning stuff, but not many researching.
I'm actually trying to get into a doctorate position but it's pretty hard...

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Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you."

I had a rare moment.

Actually, I've been saying that for years...

Yeah, even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Women college students outnumber men students in general.

Clearly, a college education is not as attractive to men as it once was.


Any thoughts on why that is?

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Olsen the moderator.

That's certainly part of it: Discrimination in favor of the 'right people'.

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Olsen the moderator.

I don't think the USA is different. Both spouses work to provide the standard of living they desire. That's fine with me. I think both spouses should work. It keeps your job skills honed in case you suddenly find yourself widowed.

But women tend to out-number men in the number employed part-time, and women in full-time jobs work fewer hours per pay period than men.

Additionally, men are more likely to take on dirty, dangerous, and unpleasant jobs to support a family than women seem to be.

How many women do you see hanging off the back of a garbage truck? I've
seen a bunch of them driving the truck, but I never saw a single one actually handling the garbage containers.

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Olsen the moderator.

I've met hogs with worse problems than just blindness...

Because they prefer to work than continue studies?

Can I apply ?