HEALTH MANAGEMENT. The problem with the women and Science: it is hormone - or is it?

A new study of a rare genetic disease can illuminate the long and valiantly well-reasoned debate on whether women are underrepresented in scientific careers biology or discrimination and cultural influences.
Researchers at Penn State University has watched teens and young adults who have been exposed to levels abnormally high hormone androgen male while in the uterus. Compared to their brothers and sisters who were not so exposed, they were clearly more interested in a career related to things - including science, technology, engineering and mathematics - as opposed to careers related to people, the researchers found.
Fetal exposure to androgens is one of the results of a genetic defect known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). The condition affects boys and girls, but it is generally less apparent in boys. Girls and women with CAH are genetically female and are treated as such, but they may have characteristics such as the hair of the face and ambiguous genitalia.
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The new study by Sheri a. Berenbaum, Professor of psychology and Pediatrics at Penn State, included 125 young people in all, 73 with CAH and 52 of their brothers and sisters who have not suffered from the condition. Berenbaum and his team gauged levels of interest in stem careers participants say: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Not only are women with CAH more interested by these careers than their non-affected sisters, but the androgen more that they had been exposed to in utero, most they addressed to these vocations. Young men with CAH do not differ in their career as their typical brothers preferences; both were just as interested in the fields of the stem.
The results suggest a biological influence on career choices, the author said. "We will suggest that these interests are quite early in development," said Berenbaum.
Does this mean the traffic to attract women in science is a waste of time? Not necessarily, said Adriene Mr. Beltz, a student who has worked with Berenbaum. "Perhaps we could show female ways in which an interest in people is compatible with the stem careers.".
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By coincidence, the preliminary results of another study, released in August found that in community colleges, the disparity between the sexes in science is not as pronounced as in four years to elite colleges, a result that suggests the imbalance is largely the result of cultural forces, rather than biology. Faculties of the stem in community colleges have almost a 50-50 split type. The study of the National Science Foundation, which is still ongoing, seeks to analyse why community colleges do better on this front.
A teacher in Ohio, where the results are already in, said that it has to do with schools of the culture and the environment. "[Members of the Faculty] women are happy, they pay equity and there are more of them than in the four-year colleges," said Cynthia Anderson, Professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Ohio.
Another tick in the nurture column is this fascinating study of the India dug up by Healthland contributor Maia Szalavitz, who believes that the expectations of a tribe of the mathematical skills of women overrides nearly completely any gender difference in ability.
If a bias towards the careers of people-centric (education, social work) and stem careers (surgery, he) a result inclination or biology? Probably both. But it might help to correct the imbalance if working with people and working with things were also paid.

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