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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: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 13 2014, @08:49AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 13 2014, @08:49AM (#15830)

    As it ended, they both graduated near the top of their class from very good schools in the US, and went into what I consider "soft careers". (Social issues related fields). I always thought it was a waste of a perfectly good brain.

    Wow, what a horrible outlook on life. You consider smart people trying to solve social issues a "waste of a perfectly good brian"? Solving social issues should be everyone's goal. Maybe if they went into HFT you'd be happier? I'm very glad these smart women cared more about their world than you appear to.

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