What are some possible reasons that women are not equally represented in every field?

[obedientspoon387]

well an obvious reason is interest.

[Chaotics]

It's not discrimination. As you say, it's because women have different interests than men. Women are more nurturing, which is why more women work with kids and as nurses. A lot want to become housewives, while very few men do.

[ProfessorC]

Once we have enough people educated and experienced in their fields then we could point to factors other than discrimination. 40 years ago (yes that recent) we had quotas ( 1 or 2 out of 100) of females gaining admission to graduate schools. That has improved and it is evening out.

In my department there are 5 men and two women, six of us have doctorates, one male does not. Neither of us women would have been hired without a doctorate. However, our department chair is retiring in the next year or two- and I have been picked to chair the department.

[xiomanger666]

No it does not! Does the relative scarcity of white rappers point to discrimination, for example?

LACK OF INTEREST is nowadays probably the chief cause of disparities in occupations among different groups more so than any discrimination. I've known several cases of talented women in physics simply STOP CARING about physics all of a sudden and drop out just when things were going great for them careerwise.

To be at the top requires TREMENDOUS sacrifices, not to mention stupendously long working hours, for guys and girls alike. For women that means having to make the painful choice between children and a top ranked career. It's simply more difficult of a choice to make for women and is already difficult enough for the men themselves.

[Res ipsa loquitur]

"If women do not make up 50% or so of the world's professors, doctors, scientists, (or any other occupation), does this automatically point to discrimination"?

Nope to say otherwise is to confuse correlation and causation.

"Are there other possible reasons for varying percentages of female workers in each field"?

Women might not want to work as hard to get into jobs such as engineering or physics as these require lots of heavy math/philosophical concepts which other social sciences do not.

Women might not want to work such long hours.

Women might not want to put their lives in danger.

Women might not choose to be in certain fields simply because they don't have any interest in them.

Women might place more emphasis on time with friends and family than on time spent trying to accomplish more lofty career goals.

Once they get a Bachelors degree, women might not continue on because they want to get out in the career market right away instead of spending more time on their education.

Women might lack the funds recieve further schooling.

Women might choose less prestigious schools than men do on average.

Women might get pregnant more often before they can finish school never allowing themselves to begin a career.

Women might feel compelled to go to school simply because their parents want them to causing them to do worse in school further leading to them not getting into high-paying careers.

There are probably more but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

"Is a lack of equal representation "the very definition of discrimination", as one person said in an earlier answer"?

Uh no. There is a difference between government sanctioned discrimination, i.e. laws that set in place discrimination, versus discrimination that arises from the free movement of people which are neither sanctioned nor enforced by the government.