Title 9ing of Science.

The NY Times, which actually does fairly good science reporting writes on the troubles ahead for Science and Engineering and Math education.

I've mentioned this before. Once again the real hideousness comes in the implementation.

How would a quota system to increase more women in science work? What if not enough women sign up? What if some drop out during their study? How does one tailor science for women? What would a "Woman's Physics" or "Female Calculus" actually mean?

But the institute found that women with physics degrees go on to doctorates, teaching jobs and tenure at the same rate that men do. The gender gap is a result of earlier decisions. While girls make up nearly half of high school physics students, they're less likely than boys to take Advanced Placement courses or go on to a college degree in physics.

Once you get an initial degree (IE a BS) then the *rate* to higher degrees and teaching roles are the same. What this shows is that if the desire is "equality" between men and women then changing the graduate curriculum and the process of becoming a Prof is rather balanced given the pool of BS students.

The imbalance comes in the number of women that enter the field (undergrad students) versus males. Once again there comes into problems of how to apply this.

A similar conclusion comes from a new study of the large gender gap in the computer industry by Joshua Rosenbloom and Ronald Ash of the University of Kansas. By administering vocational psychological tests, the researchers found that information technology workers especially enjoyed manipulating objects and machines, whereas workers in other occupations preferred dealing with people.

Once the researchers controlled for that personality variable, the gender gap shrank to statistical insignificance: women who preferred tinkering with inanimate objects were about as likely to go into computer careers as were men with similar personalities. There just happened to be fewer women than men with those preferences.

That's right. When you normalize by *interest* in the inorganic sciences men and women have very close results.

So the question remains, if a lack of women in science is a problem (what about the lack of men in the social sciences, medical, veterinary, literature...) then the method to get more women in the field has to be done with care.