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'A gender equality paradox': Countries with more gender equality have fewer female STEM grads

The researchers believe this might be because countries with less gender equality often have little welfare support.

COUNTRIES WITH GREATER gender equality see a smaller proportion of women taking degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), a new study has found.

Dubbed the “gender equality paradox”, the research found that countries such as Albania and Algeria have a greater percentage of women amongst their STEM graduates than countries lauded for their high levels of gender equality, such as Finland, Norway and Sweden.

The researchers, from Leeds Beckett University and the University of Missouri, believe this might be because countries with less gender equality often have little welfare support, making the choice of a relatively high-paid STEM career more attractive.

The study, published in Psychological Science, also examined what motivates girls and boys to study STEM subjects, including overall ability, interest or enjoyment in the subject and whether science subjects were a personal academic strength.

Research method

The researchers used data on 475,000 teenagers across 67 countries or regions for the study.

They found that while boys’ and girls’ achievements in STEM subjects were broadly similar, science was more likely to be boys’ best subject. Girls, even with their ability in science equalled or excelled that of boys, were often likely to be better overall in reading comprehensions, which relates to higher ability in non-STEM subjects.

Girls also tended to register a lower interest in science subjects. These differences were near-universal across all the countries and regions studied.

Professor of psychology Gijsbert Stoet said this could explain some of the gender disparity in STEM participation.

“The further you get in secondary and then higher education, the more subjects you need to drop until you end with just one. We are inclined to choose what we are best at and also enjoy. This makes sense and matches common school advice.

So, even though girls can match boys in terms of how well they do at science and mathematics in school, if those aren’t their best subjects and they are less interested in them, then they’re less likely to choose to study something else.

Girls studying STEM

The researchers then looked at how many girls might be expected to choose to further study in STEM-based areas on these criteria.

They took the number of girls in each country who had the necessary ability in STEM, and for whom it was also their best subject, and compared this to the number of women graduating in STEM.

The results show that there is a disparity in all countries, but with the gap once again larger in more gender equal countries.

In the UK, 29% of STEM graduates are female, whereas 48% of UK girls might be expected to take those subjects based on science ability alone. This drops to 39% when both science ability and interest in the subject are taken into account.

“Although countries with greater gender equality tend to be those where women are actively encouraged to participate in STEM, they lose more girls from an academic STEM track who might otherwise choose it, based on their personal academic strengths,” Co-researcher professor David Geary said.

“Broader economic factors appear to contribute to the higher participation of women in STEM in countries with low gender equality and the lower participation in gender-equal countries.”

Countries with higher gender equality tend also to be welfare states, providing a high level of social security for their citizens, compared to those with lower gender equality which tend to have less secure and more difficult living conditions. Using the UNESCO overall life satisfaction figures as a proxy for economic opportunity and hardship, the researchers found that in more gender equal countries, overall life satisfaction was higher.

Professor Stoet said:

STEM careers are generally secure and well-paid but the risks of not following such a path can vary. In more affluent counties, where any choice of career feels relatively safe, women may feel able to make choices based on non-economic factors.
Conversely, in counties with fewer economic opportunities, or where employment might be precarious, a well-paid and relatively secure STEM career can be more attractive to women.

Despite extensive efforts to increase participation of women in STEM, levels have remained broadly stable for decades, but these findings could help target interventions to make them more effective, the researchers said.

“It’s important to take into account that girls are choosing not to study STEM for what they feel are valid reasons, so campaigns that target all girls may be a waste of energy and resources,” Professor Stoet said.

“If governments want to increase women’s participation in STEM, a more effective strategy might be to target the girls who are clearly being lost from the STEM pathway – those for whom science and maths are their best subjects and who enjoy it but still don’t choose it,” he said.

“If we can understand their motivations, then interventions can be designed to help them change their minds.”

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    Mute Early Cuyler
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    Dec 26th 2019, 10:13 PM

    The idea that THC is bad also takes away from our understanding and the medicinal potential.

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    Mute Record Sunshine
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    Dec 26th 2019, 10:52 PM

    Heaven forbid that cannabis might leave the reefer madness era behind once and for all and be a mainstream product of benefit for millions of people. Keeping people drugged up on legal prescription drugs seems to be perfectly acceptable, though. A smoke definitely does one good after a hefty Christmas dinner, anyway. Celebrations, here I come .

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    Mute Karl Charlie
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:16 PM

    @Record Sunshine: legal prescription drugs make money for big pharma but the suggestion of taking money off them by using cbd is like askin ffg to pay their dail bar bill never gonna happen

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    Mute Clare McAfee
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:43 PM

    @Karl Charlie: start taking to the Gov about tax income, more jobs, and votes, and they might listen a little less to pharma industry pressure..

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    Mute Clare McAfee
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:40 PM

    No research in this area? Someone had better tell the state of Florida quick. Licenses are applied for to the state, and granted on the basis of scientific research. Several of my friends in the US with chronic pain apply to the state they live in for a licence and a week later are down at the dispensary collecting a medical grade product. Give up the “no research” excuse, chronic pain patients are sick of hearing it.

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    Mute Emer Caffrey
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    Dec 27th 2019, 10:15 AM

    @Clare McAfee: just ask the patients who’ve benefited from it when nothing else worked

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    Mute Conall
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    Dec 28th 2019, 2:16 AM

    @Emer Caffrey: Individual reports are not a reliable way of determinining the efficacy of a medication. This can only be done through properly designed trials.

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    Mute John Brendan Mullen
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:19 PM

    Headline should read, if we sell CBD/THC the shareholders in the big pharmaceutical companies might receive lower dividends.

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    Mute Mike Murphy
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:23 PM

    @John Brendan Mullen: that’s the big problem…something you can grow at home can have health benefits that you wont be spending money on prescription drugs the big players dont like that

    72
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    Mute John Black
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    Dec 27th 2019, 3:12 PM

    @John Brendan Mullen: the people who hold most of the patents for Cannabis based medicinal products are the big pharmaceutical companies so please remove your tinfoil hat

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    Mute Vincent McDermott
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    Dec 28th 2019, 8:03 AM

    @John Black: Quiet the opposite, pharmaceutical companies have been looking at cannabinoids for years. With stricter regulators in the Pharma industry, safety and efficacy data must be proven. This is not the case with the natural health sector who can make claims for cures without proper research.

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    Mute Mike Murphy
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:09 PM

    The plant is given to us from the earth…has so many benefits.. why live in 1950s ireland and not legalise it…has so much revenue to be made from it..and on the medical side it helps alot of people

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    Mute HearMeNow33
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    Dec 27th 2019, 12:20 PM

    @Mike Murphy: You had me on the first line of your comment…. Totally agree.

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    Mute Pat Conners
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:35 PM

    I live in the neatherlands.. as everyone knows smoking a joint is tolerated. Outside of the stigma of drug use it is well known in Holland that sufferers of cancer and MS will suffer less as a result of marijuana..THC is what gets you high..CBD is what apparently cures many ailments..this story seems to glorify pharmaceutical cures that are for sure 10fold more expensive than a plant.

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    Mute Arragh Sure
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    Dec 26th 2019, 10:08 PM

    Rubbish. If they make cannibas available for pain as it is everywhere else and quit acting like there is no evidence of anything about cannibas they may show some brains as a government. Then again.

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    Mute ihcalaM
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    Dec 26th 2019, 10:24 PM

    @Arragh Sure: Yeah but there’s a difference between cannabis being used for pain (legitimately) and the quacks promoting it as a cure for every disease under the Sun.

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    Mute Arragh Sure
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    Dec 26th 2019, 10:33 PM

    @ihcalaM: That is true. There is also an acute difference between people suffering and waiting on opiates which is the issue here. Not as acute as not giving a fiddlers and acquiring it anyway ^_^

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    Mute Audrey Muddiman
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    Dec 26th 2019, 10:46 PM

    Probably the only sensible response on. Social media I have seen thus far. Anyone saying there’s of research etc doesn’t consider the side effects. Do we seriously need another under research product on the market just because it might suit the vested interests to push it through

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    Mute Fachtna Roe
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:12 PM

    @Audrey Muddiman: It’s been researched for the last 5,000 years.

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    Mute Brendan Greene
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:25 PM

    @Fachtna Roe: no. It hasn’t. We are talking about peer reviewed research trials using controls and placebos. Commercial pressure is not a good environment for proper research.

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    Mute Arragh Sure
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    Dec 27th 2019, 4:14 AM

    @Audrey Muddiman: I am stunned (not) to see that the empirical evidence available for its good side effects in treating various ailments has thus far eluded you.

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    Mute Brian Conway
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    Dec 27th 2019, 7:40 AM

    @Audrey Muddiman: what do you think the yanks don’t do research?? There’s masses of research been done. Masses

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    Mute Clare McAfee
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    Dec 27th 2019, 8:45 AM

    @Audrey Muddiman: tell that to my chronic pain friends in the US with their State-granted medical cannabis licenses, based on scientific research (their consultant sends research in with their application). The license isn’t granted without it. Of course there’s side effects, of course it won’t work for everyone, but like any other drug it’s about the RIGHT to access. Let’s just sit here while the US make it legal on a federal basis.. it’ll happen. I spent 2 months in Colorado where it’s legal recreationally and medically – saying you can’t have access to regulated cannabis is like saying off you go to the pub and you’ve no idea what’s in your drink.. Strict laws re driving and public nuisance in CO, and I didn’t once see any incident. Did see cannabis in house window boxes a lot..

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Dec 27th 2019, 2:13 PM

    @Arragh Sure: You are wrong and I know people who moved states in the US to use cannabis as medication.
    “Drugs Are Bad” line is killing the use of a non toxic drug.
    Big Pharma are stopping it until they get their artificial alternative right as the type on the market at the moment is lethal.
    There are thousands of studies and reports showing the good CBD does with a touch of THC in it.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Dec 27th 2019, 2:15 PM

    @Audrey Muddiman: Pushing through a product you can grow yourself.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Dec 27th 2019, 2:15 PM

    @Brendan Greene: It has been researched and thats why it is legal in a lot of states and countries like Canada.

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    Mute Vincent McDermott
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    Dec 28th 2019, 8:07 AM

    @Gary Kearney: most active ingredients in Pharma is from natural products

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    Mute Damien Barton
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    Dec 26th 2019, 10:11 PM

    Like antibiotics but keep selling away on them do

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    Mute EdmundOrlando
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    Dec 26th 2019, 11:37 PM

    5htp is also a good cure all derived from plants thats legalised.. better than any anti depressant out there with minimal side effects!

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    Mute Emer Caffrey
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    Dec 27th 2019, 10:19 AM

    @EdmundOrlando: very interesting, first time I’ve heard of it. Can it be taken with anti depressants?

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    Mute Mary Morrisey
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    Dec 27th 2019, 10:45 AM

    @Emer Caffrey: No, just as St. John’s Wort can’t. 5HTP is not legally sold in Ireland.

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    Mute Vincent McDermott
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    Dec 28th 2019, 8:12 AM

    @Mary Morrisey: St John’s Wort has moved to prescription as it was shown to be a chemical disrupted I believe, and can interefer with things like the contraceptive pill

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    Mute HearMeNow33
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    Dec 27th 2019, 12:26 PM

    I miss having a joint. Off it now 3.25 years. I know the day and date i stoped smoking it. No particular reason but drug driving laws were looming, not that i smoked while driving but i loved sitting down at night after work in front of tv and relaxing.. Preferred it to alcohol. Last drink i had was July… I never gave it up… I’m just on a break..

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    Mute Perlum Sprite
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    Dec 27th 2019, 11:56 AM

    I would allow people to grow it at home, perhaps 2 plants.

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    Mute Tommy Sea
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    Dec 27th 2019, 1:46 AM

    I feel violated, my human rights trampled on, because of the way it is now.

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    Mute Deirdre Howard
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    Dec 27th 2019, 1:49 PM

    I drink CBD coffee and find it relaxed me.i love it. The coffee tastes great to

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    Mute aidan mccormack
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    Dec 27th 2019, 7:04 AM

    @Anna69axx: nice try… you probably have big balls than I do.

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    Mute Real Online Career
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    Jun 13th 2020, 2:00 PM

    CBD can be useful in treating depression – read about CBD and Depression at https://mjgrow.weebly.com/home/cbd-and-depression

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    Mute Paul Dooley
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    Dec 27th 2019, 11:56 PM

    Time to test what they are selling

    Something is wrong when i saw it’s for sale in a tiny shopping center in sham town or which has 4 viable shops and a pop up shops all over the country

    Are these not the head shops back again wake up cal

    So it’s more profitable than everything else

    How much profit is out of it and is it addictive

    In 10 years time there will be an enquiry into it

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