Gender Inequality

There were more people 3 hours ago!

I have noticed that males in my Economics course tend to react to incentives more competitively than females. John A. List, the Chief Economic Advisor of Lyft, promised to give a signed copy of his book to students who are the most "engaged" during experimentation. The engagement of the students is determined by the student who makes the most money - we play various games - during the experimental session. Whenever Professor Min or the Teacher Assistant Ted asks a question, whether it is to get a letter of recommendation or the signed book, the boys instantaneously raise their hands, whereas the female hands are relatively lower. Furthermore, as I am in the lounge, I notice that the male population is significantly larger than females. The males seem to be more competitive to get an A in their respective courses. Why do females raise their hands more than males and why are there more males in the lounge?

For credibility, I will, also, conduct a small field experiment in class (randomized and students are unaware) tomorrow to compare the differences and share it on the blog, tomorrow. 

However, on the blog, I will be describing what my class book says.

Early in 2005, Larry Summers, former President of Harvard University made a claim that females are at an inherent intellectual disadvantage because in STEM occupations their numbers are relatively lower. Though his statement received plenty of criticism, in STEM occupations, their numbers are lower. Is his claim right?

1 AM but the grind is still on!

By conducting field experiments, and holding everything else equal, we analyze that men, in a traditional work environment, are at an advantage - they are more competitive. When viewing work-application data on Craiglist, men tend to choose the more competitive pay schemes, where salaries tend to be higher. The same is for a field experiment conducted at the school, Technion - the MIT of Israel. Participants were asked to solve as many mazes as they can in fifteen minutes where they receive a dollar maze solved. Men were found to be more!

So, are men just inherently more competitive than females?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! When this same experiment was conducted in a patriarchal and matriarchal society, the results are different. In a matriarchal society, we notice that females are more competitive than males and vice versa. Take the village in India, Khasi, where the females control the society, and a small village in Tanzaina. In Khasi we notice that females are more negotiable, competitive, and successful whereas in Tanzania males tend to have the characteristics.

Applying this to our everyday lives, we need to consider that the gender gap in a lot of STEM occupations are high! From an economics perspective, to close the gender gap we need to educate our girls that they are just as capable as men and as for employers they need to give females more competitive assignments, which is beneficial to their business in the long run. 

I have learned a great deal in the past few days from my course, today! However, the most significant knowledge I have gained was about how gender inequality in our societies has made such a big difference whether it be in STEM occupations or maybe even the quality of their work in schools.