Clarissa's Blog

3 responses to “The Congress of Clowns”

1. 

   NG

   January 22, 2015

   While you’re on feminist issues, I would be interested in your opinion on the “field-specific ability beliefs hypothesis” which is being bantered around the more erudite blogosphere. I do have a problem with studies based on Likert scales with free floating self referential data sets as well as small sample sizes with a reduced confidence limit.

   Abstract:

   The gender imbalance in STEM subjects dominates current debates about women’s underrepresentation in academia. However, women are well represented at the Ph.D. level in some sciences and poorly represented in some humanities (e.g., in 2011, 54% of U.S. Ph.D.’s in molecular biology were women versus only 31% in philosophy). We hypothesize that, across the academic spectrum, women are underrepresented in fields whose practitioners believe that raw, innate talent is the main requirement for success, because women are stereotyped as not possessing such talent. This hypothesis extends to African Americans’ underrepresentation as well, as this group is subject to similar stereotypes. Results from a nationwide survey of academics support our hypothesis (termed the field-specific ability beliefs hypothesis) over three competing hypotheses.

   http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6219/262.abstract

   Seems to me that the basic problem is summed up in the following graph of “new faculty positions versus new PhDs.” When the water hole gets empty, the animals look at each other differently.

   http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v31/n10/fig_tab/nbt.2706_F1.html

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   1. 

      Clarissa

      January 22, 2015

      “We hypothesize that, across the academic spectrum, women are underrepresented in fields whose practitioners believe that raw, innate talent is the main requirement for success”

      • Scholars don’t believe in “raw, innate talent.” 🙂 There is no field that is filled with infantile, unintelligent people who believe in this. Even sociologists are better than that. 🙂

      It is useless to look at this issue outside of the general societal context. This is not a problem academia has. This is a problem the entire society has. I constantly hear stories about young women who leave very promising careers (in academia and outside) not for any specific reason or with a specific goal in mind but “to look around,” “to think tings over,” “to take some time”, etc. The social penalty for this is non-existent if a woman does it and high if a man does. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. There is not enough motivation because there is no penalty for failing. Unfortunately, most people don’t get motivated without a penalty.

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2. 

   Fie Upon This Quiet Life

   January 22, 2015

   I have several students who are missing classes in order to go to the March for Life, and because I’m at a religious school, I have to excuse their absences. It makes me sick.

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