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posted by janrinok on Wednesday March 12 2014, @04:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the this-will-not-be-controversial-oh-no-sir dept.

GungnirSniper writes:

"Catherine Rampell at The Washington Post has 'A message to the nation's women: Stop trying to be straight-A students.'

In her analysis of others' findings, she writes of a discouragement gradient that pushes women out of harder college degrees, including economics and other STEM degrees. Men do not seem to have a similar discouragement gradient, so they stay in harder degree programs and ultimately earn more. Data suggests that women might also value high grades more than men do and sort themselves into fields where grading curves are more lenient.

'Maybe women just don't want to get things wrong,' Goldin hypothesized. 'They don't want to walk around being a B-minus student in something. They want to find something they can be an A student in. They want something where the professor will pat them on the back and say "You're doing so well!"'

'Guys,' she added, 'don't seem to give two damns.'

Why are women in college moving away from harder degrees?"

 
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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by snakeplissken on Wednesday March 12 2014, @05:35PM

    by snakeplissken (972) on Wednesday March 12 2014, @05:35PM (#15547)

    without more data it is difficult to even speculate, but it could be argued that in a sexist society one would expect women who wish to be taken seriously academically, to be aware of the sexism in society and to act accordingly. one prediction might be that they expect not to be treated as equally as a man who also 'only got b grades', perhaps there is an expectation that it would be 'used against them'?

    as i said in the first, without data this is pure speculation, but it seems reasonable that women who perceive that all is not equal might tailor their decisions in response.

    snake

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