Science Paper

[your-angel]

Hello all:

 

I have to do a five to seven page paper on the differences between men and women in Science. Any one have any ideas?

[CharonY]

Hmm, for starters one of those take great pains to appear less hairy (excluding, for some reasons, the head) . Also get paid less (on average) in positions with negotiable wages.

[Greippi]

Don't forget to include a historical perspective: e.g. the whole DNA thing with Rosalind Franklin.

[iNow]

Depending upon the class this is for, it might be interesting to explore the social aspects, and how women were generally encouraged to stay at home raising children and cooking dinner and cleaning the house for so many decades. After all, for quite a long time, women didn't even have the right to vote... let alone the ability to get a respected position in science. That gave men quite an advantage, and that advantage was reinforced in school where most parents and teachers simply assumed (mistakenly) that women were no good at math and science. That can have quite an impact on a woman's willingness to reach for her goals, or to believe that it's possible for her to do science. Fortunately, that has been changing lately.

[Double K]

Also traditionally, (nurture or nature) dictated that women were generally more "right brain/emotional" than men who are considered more "left brain/logic" than women.

[Mr Skeptic]

Women are genetically more stable due to having two X chromosomes, and they live longer (at least now that they don't die in childbirth). Only one X chromosome is used and the other in inactivated; this is chosen fairly early on and the result is that they are a mosaic of cells with one or the other X chromosome active. This generally doesn't matter much, but in the case of tortoiseshell cats it gives them their distinctive coat, and in the case of a defective X chromosome it often means they can survive (and possibly be just fine) whereas a man would die.

 

Men have more genetic information used (an X and a Y chromosome) but women have more genetic information altogether (an X is bigger than a Y chromosome) though most of it will be redundant (as it is with every other gene except X and Y). In early development, men follow the default female body plan development, but the Y chromosome interferes with it in a process called defeminization.

[Horza2002]

You could consider the different subjects they study.

 

In ym experience, women tend to study biological based subjects where as men tend towards physical subjects (e.g. maths, engeneering)

[theoriginal169]

hormones

 

genetics

 

reproductive system

 

phenotypes

 

the differences at blood count etc.

[CharonY]

Interesting that everyone is speculating without actually knowing what the OP meant. I will continue to assume that it refers to gender differences in the science area. I think a couple of studies exist that in males the differences e.g. in IQ or similar measures are more diverse than in females (i.e. the variance is larger). The average on the other hand was pretty close. While for the individual it is not that interesting, it can have an impact on gender composition composition of highly competitive areas (as e.g. in science careers), even if one excludes social biases.

[hermanntrude]

there's no harm in stating the obvious, as well, in nice clean scientific terms. Physiology is a science too, after all.