Why most women don’t want to be engineers | Jordan Peterson

COLLECTIVELY SPEAKING, more men are interested in “things”, and more women are interested in “people”

[theodorflorinro]

This guy speaks gold. I'm a civil engineer and I worked in the biggest corporations out there. Every single time it's the same thing. Some stupid CEOs think that women have less opportunities to become engineers when in reality women are not as interested as men to become engineers.

[franca]

I dont like how society always notice what women does... JUST LET WOMEN BE... DONT INTERFERE... if women arent taking engineering as much as men... so what?

[andrew]

There are a total of 5 women in my engineering undergrad. The class size is roughly 200 I’d guess

[angelikag]

You can also choose engineering if you are interested more in humans than things. Engineering has helped a lot of humans. Also, engineering isn‘t about „things“, it‘s about solving problems and being innovative.
He talks about biology but there has been NO gene or something like that found, that is responsible for being more into humans or things or crap like that. You can only make psychological tests and no matter how young the participants will be, they will ALWAYS be biased by society.
I am female engineer and I only played with barbies and dolls as a kid and here I am not choosing nursing as a career even though I am „biologically chosen to be interested in humans“ as my childhood „reveals“.

[pthegreat]

I guess its more about just the minute female child is born u start receiving barbie dolls as gifts and for a male child u get Lego toys, u kill the spatial skill of the girl right at that moment, its cz the society likes to keep everything in box

[a-aron]

I think we'll see if the statements hold up another 10 years, like i was raised by women, my dad passed away when i was two, I'm an engineer now but i grew up in a house with girly dolls and baking and sewing and basically home economics. Everything "girly". So engineering wasn't exactly part of my upbringing, so does that make it nature rather than nurture. And I'm sure the opposite is true for women who grew up in an all male household. I just think that on average men do like the engineering side of life more.

[Melpheoser]

Any woman have the possibility to go into the engineering field, same goes for man in nursing field.
If there is a clear split in choice despite the possibility, it's because of this clear difference between men and women biology

[Muralath]

It’s because 40-70% of us are sexually harassed during our studies in that field that we eventually learn to stay away from predators by not attending the work force over yonder.

[FreedomReform]

It's amazing how many don't actually listen to what's said and then write completely nonsensical comments. Never was it said that women can't be engineers or men nurses. Clearly they can and are... what's said is the data shows that men in general are more interested in things and women in people and on the fringes of the scale the difference is greater. What that means is you cannot FORCE or engineer a 50/50 quota in any career path aligned with things and people without loss of competency. ...and given the freedom to choose, and eliminating such engineered quotas the reality is that more men are engineers and more women nurses.

[nileverdeen]

This is man shows how to conceal your sexism under your sophisticated so-called scientific explanation ... Maybe women are more interested in people but there's something other than nurse that requires interest in people: doctor . But oh we have more male doctors so...

[celestegarcia]

We socialize girls very differently from boys. It’s not nature, it’s nurture.

[cheyemily]

So there must be something biological too that makes men, specially heterosexual ones, consistently engage in ballet dancing less than in other forms of dancing like hip hop. Or perhaps culture, traditions and shared imaginaries are a thing.

[whctjsdlfqhrlfprl]

He is not talking about right or wrong. He is saying what it is.

[eolill]

Ignored here is the amount of "choice" which is due to socialization, how your view of what your options are is impacted by people's expectations of you. People expect girls to be less interested in STEM subjects, and so many girls don't even explore it as an option, or feel like impostors, or feel like their interest has to be 110% for it to be worth going against the grain to pursue it. Additionally, research shows that people's STEM abilities start early, toddler age, and so if parents of toddlers don't encourage girls and boys in the same way, this will manifest in differences in both interest and ability later in life.

You cannot consider the behaviour of an object without considering the forces acting on that object. In the same way, you cannot consider the behaviour of people without considering the environment they live in or grew up in.

"Boys like things, girls like people" is an extremely harmful sentiment for boys as well. A lot of boys are shamed to pieces for liking "girl things", and so the bar for boys to pursue "people fields" can be even higher than for women to pursue engineering fields.

[TheSatiyeh]

i miss this jordan peteson before he went crazy

[silocom]

I'm a male in engineering. We definitely need more women
I can't find a woman anywhere

[devynboyle]

I am 23F diagnosed with autism this year. I switched my major to engineering. Socialization is to blame.

[OmDzable]

The amount of selective hearing is astounding.

How many comments here making ridiculous statements, suggesting or claiming outright that Peterson is wrong because they or a family member are female engineers?

Are you all incapable of actually listening to what he's saying? Did you all ignore him when he clearly states... "On AVERAGE, men are more interested in things and women are more interested in people".

Of course there will be exceptions. He's not making blanket statements or stating absolutes.

[jameschickenfrango]

Here's something interesting, I graduated as a bio-engineer from Ivy league in PA (thou shall not be named). In the engineering school, most female undergrads are Chinese or Indian, that's the fact, which also checks out with the stats. But why? What about white female and other minorities? Here's my hypothesis, most of the Chinese and Indian female engineers didn't have a choice. "How ridiculous an accusation!" Some might say, "Chinese and Indian women have more freedom... Well their culture and social norm... White women and black women have less..." I rest my case.

[takatuka]

Wait a moment: What qualifies him to talk about this topic?! When somebody describes engineering as "it's about things" - and says, that "women are more interested in people" in first instance this shows how little HE knows about engineering. So my girlfriend and I studied "things" for a couple of years, sure!