Science, It's a Chick Thing

From the EU, like they don't have enough problems, this advertisement trying to convince girls that science is a glamorous job.

"This campaign will show women and girls that science does not just mean old men in white coats," Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, the European Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner, said in a written statement. "We hope that by providing positive role models and by explaining the options we can persuade more young women to stick with science."

Where I work, likelihood of getting mud or acid on your clothes is such that most women come in jeans (or shorts, when it's hot).  Moreover, spiked heels aren't really good footwear in the marsh...

Meanwhile, men are falling farther and farther behind in education in the United States.

In an op-ed published Saturday in Newsweek, President Barack Obama marked the 40th anniversary of the enactment of Title IX--which bars gender discrimination in education—and noted that more women in the United States are now graduating from college than men, which he characterized as “a great accomplishment” for the nation.

“In fact, more women as a whole now graduate from college than men,” Obama wrote. “This is a great accomplishment—not just for one sport or one college or even just for women but for America. And this is what Title IX is all about.”

According to the Census Bureau, 685,000 men and 916,000 women graduated from college in 2009 (the latest year for which statistics have been published). That means 25 percent fewer men received college degrees than women.

It's not as true in the STEM fields, but the trend is continuing, and it seems inevitable that most of science will be dominated by women the future.  At the bachelors level, women are already ahead in 3 of 8 STEM field identified by GAO, biology, sociology and psychology, and gaining ground in EAO (Earth, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences), engineering, physics, and technology.  Only in mathematics are women actually losing share. At higher levels, women become progressively less dominant, although they are gaining in every field except Technology.

As noted by the PJM Tatler:

In 1975, before Title IX was implemented, there were 17% fewer women graduating from college than men. Commenter Mark Simmons points out the obvious:

So if a 17% deficit was a catastrophe requiring federal intervention, what are we to conclude when that same federal intervention has created a 25% level of inequality?

Wombat-Socho checked in early this week with The Other McCain's Rule 5 list "Exile on Duke Street". The Classical Liberal links to this in "Hot Legs!"