A blunt article in PNAS by Ceci and Williams provides considerable evidence that the underrepresentation of women in mathematically intensive fields is not due to systematic discrimination: > Women’s current underrepresentation in math-intensive ?elds is not caused by discrimination in these domains, but rather t... read more

One of the big differences between working in industry and academia is that in industry you rarely work alone. Most problems companies have to tackle are too big and complex to involve just one person. There is extensive literature on problem solving ability in individuals (IQ and the like), but much less on g... read more

There's an intriguing piece in Slate on what looks like a very well designed study of the role of faculty gender on female students' career trajectories. A few highlights: > The authors persuasively demonstrate that the overall male-female student performance difference is due in large part to the fact that me... read more

Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden have conducted a recent study of University of California graduate students. Mason's assessment in *The Chronicle*: "We may be losing some of the most talented potential academics before they even arrive for a job interview. In the eyes of many doctoral students, the research univers... read more

A piece in today's *Times* covers a new NSF-funded study that compares standardized math test scores for girls and boys and finds no difference. These studies are important in that there is a fair amount of evidence that the *perception* that women underachieve in some subjects becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. ... read more

A bunch of new and interesting studies on women in science have come out in the past couple of weeks. Today, the first two, on workplace issues: *The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology* from the Center for Work-Life Policy has gotten some good coverage in the *New Yo... read more

I am scheduled to give a seminar in 2 weeks on a topic that I have less familiarity with than I'd like. The people from whom I am supposed to get a crucial data set for the talk aren't returning my calls. My backup plan has been scooped by a seminar in the same series on Monday. So I'm a little panicked. Not *to... read more

There is a fascinating article on Slate about the interaction between perceptions of people's capabilities and their actual performances. A few snippets: > Correll has found that, in the presence of a stereotype that men are better, women tend to underrate their own performance, while men overrate their own, reg... read more