Mötesplats Rydberg: Gijsbert Stoet "Can and should society try to attract more women to physics, engineering, and computer science?"

Tuesday 14 May 2019, 15:15 → 16:15 Europe/Stockholm

Rydbergsalen (Fysiska institutionen-Physics Department)

There are many efforts to attract more girls and young women to studies such physics, engineering, and computer science. The problem is that it is really difficult to change what young people want to study. Even Scandinavian countries such as Sweden have few women in these subjects, despite their overall high level of gender equality. I will give an overview of important recent findings that can explain why men and women are choosing different study subjects and why it is so hard to change this. This includes my research on the gender equality paradox, which shows that the more gender equal nations become, the larger gender differences in psychological traits become. Apart from the theory, I will talk about what society (parents, schools, universities, politicians) can do. I will present reasons for and against active educational interventions. That is, I will not only present just one view, but try to give the reasons for and against to create a more balanced discussion. I argue that there are good arguments to make for both positions. Then I will show how a reasonable compromise between these two positions can be found. Further reading: • Stoet & Geary, 2018. The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education. Psychological Science. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797617741719 • Professor Stoet’s website about gender equality: https://www.genderequality.info/ • Professor Stoet’s gender equality twitter channel: https://twitter.com/GenderEqualinfo