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

[Junie]

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

I'll give one to start - chefs are overwhelmingly male - perhaps women prefer jobs which require less hours to excel, since chefs often work 70 hours a week. This could be because they want more time with family.
Is a lack of equal representation "the very definition of discrimination", as one person said in an earlier answer?

[Dishdog]

Its probably got to do with the fact that their brains are smaller than men's.

[unknown friend]

Your forgetting about the occupations that are predominately female jobs like nursing, cleaning staff and many others.

Overall it balances out, some fields are more predominately male and some female. It's all dependent on the job.

[Linda S]

It is still a mans world. Women are making headway. Some fields still don't have a lot of women in them yet. No it is not discrimination, it is a lack of women educated in that field. Take engineering if in every class there are 30 students and only 5 are women you can bet the 5 women will find employment before the men but they will still out number the women as not that many are choosing that field. Do your research on actual classroom numbers and you will see that this is true. As for chefs men are better cooks than a lot of women. I don't know why but they have a better sense of spices and are more willing to think outside of the box. You are right it is a very demanding job.

[RoVale]

Women often face hostility or harrassment when they go into these fields. Another reason is that they are often steered into other areas by guidance counselors or other people. This practice used to be more prevalent. A woman who wanted to become a scientist or a professor was often urged to become a teacher instead and those who were interested in working in the medical field were told to become nurses.

[Jo]

one would ask, why can't women spend so many hours a week at work? (answer: she probably has the majority of the responsiblity of household chores and childcare).

one would also ask, why do chefs need to work 70 hours a week? who devised this type of schedule? when men worked as chefs, perhaps they could devote such a large percentage of their time to work since their home was probably being taken care of by a woman. today, however, since most women work we seem to have to fit into the same mold as men - but not enjoy the privilege (altho some do) of having a woman take care of our house.

today's workplace has to change, just as we as individuals have changed. due to personal preferences or economic situations, women work. most economists would agree that women in the workforce are vital to economies.

thus- we have to also realize that we are going to need child care, maybe some flexibility in hours, parental leave, etc...

we are round pegs...we don't fit into square holes. work places need to accomodate everyone if the want to survive.

thus, in the average job, you would expect to see the population of a country reflected in diverse jobs - not whites in lucrative positions, blacks in low-paying ones, males in leadership positions, women in menial jobs, etc.

in other words, if there were no barriers in place, you would see jobs pretty much reflect the make-up of society.

this is what we are striving for. we have a way to go yet.

[Jim J]

There are no barriers for women to get into any field. Women are making choices based on their own desires.

[Cassius]

Biological differences. While a woman can do anything a man can do biological differences will lead to the majority of people gifted for math beeing male, or any other subject that requires a similiar brain structure and hormonal cocktail to succeed (yes hormones also determine what youre good at). Although gender is binary the impact it has on the body is not, therefore it is very well possible that a woman might be mentally closer to a man in regards of her brain architecture than her peers, excelling at math. While this is possible, itll be the exception from the rule, just like a man with feminine traits.

[Thinking Clearly]

Women who try to go into traditionally male fields will face overt discouragement and subtle messages that they are out of their place.They will not have the traditional mentoring/fathering support that young men get from older workers in the field. I have found that men will not assist me because they are afraid that their wives/g.f.s will be jealous and fear a sexual involvement. Other men will help because they think that I will have sex with them and then are angry and punitive when it doesn't work out that way.

Go read the book, Self-Made Man, by a woman who lived as a man for several months. She points out that women do not nurture each other in the way that men do other men. Interesting.

In other words, until there is representation of women in a field, it will be hard to get representation. So the situation changes slowly if at all.

It is interesting to note the number of fields that have been given to women once they became recognized as low-pay and/or boring: typists, teachers, librarians, and so forth.

[Rio Madeira]

After factoring in such things as title, industry, qualifications, seniority, productivity, salary expectations, and the like, the gap closes to 90%. The rest of it is left unexplained. Discrimination still exists, however subtly, in a fair amount of workplaces.