Advocates for closing the Gender gaps in science argue that women are victims of structural inequities.







Closing the gender gap in STEM jobs has proved difficult, perhaps because it has more to do with the priorities of men and women than with sexism.

Despite years of programs to get girls to code and to pair female scientists with mentors, men outnumber women two-to-one in STEM - science. technology. engineering and math—jobs. The gender gaps are especially wide in some of the fastest-growing and best-paying fields, such as computer science and engineering.

Advocates for closing these gaps argue that women are victims of structural inequities, such as biased hiring practices and unequal parenting demands. They are not wrong, and their effort to encourage girls to pursue STEM and to retain women in these fields makes sense. But I’m not sure they will yield the desired effects.

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