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Authors

Ann Bartow

Document Type

Symposium

Abstract

(Excerpt)

In the United States, the majority of college graduates generally, and arts and humanities graduates particularly, are women. American men, though they attend colleges and universities in significantly smaller numbers than women, continue to dominate the so-called STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math—disciplines. These gender disparities are observable when women and men first begin preparing for their careers. Beginning in middle and high school and continuing through college and graduate school, males are more likely to major in science while females are more likely to major in creative arts.

This gendered career preparation phenomenon is international. So is the fact that while the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields is usually viewed as a problem that needs addressing, the underrepresentation of men in creative arts fields almost never is. Rarely indeed does anyone express concerns about a dearth of men in the copyrightable arts pipeline. It is as if there is at least subconscious recognition of the possibility that men need to work together in large numbers to continue to dominate STEM-focused environments, and the reality that men can, and usually do, rise to the top of creative fields even if the majority of their peers and competitors are females with superior educational credentials.

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