40 year-long study throws light on gender disparity in workforce

“How can we set up highly intelligent kids to become highly successful adults?”- This was what Johns Hopkins University psychology professor Julian Stanley wanted to know. After tracking the accomplishments, educational outcomes and well-being of high-achieving children, 1,037 boys and 613 girls were chosen for the study. According to a recent report by The Huffington Post; as well as all the participants had performed 40 years later, there was clear gender gap amongst the sexes.

After Stanley’s death in 2005, educational psychologist Camilla P. Benbow and Lubinski took over. Named ‘Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth,’ the study found that where women were focused on ‘having it all,’ men concentrated more on money than childcare, even though all participants agreed that it was their families that made their lives worth living.

Another observation made by the scientists stated that with the same level of qualifications, men tend to spend an additional 11 hours at work and women were spending more time at home with relatives and their families.  As a result more men than women were found to be chief executives or working in STEM jobs.

The Flat Hat>

According to the National Academy of Sciences, there is twice number of men than women in science fields and women are employed in a small minority in STEM jobs. Another study by Harvard revealed that both men and women wished for their careers to take precedence over their spouses’ but eventually, in most cases, the men's careers generally took priority. According to The Huffington Post, the study further stated that only 11% of the women willingly quit the workforce, while others said that they were in "unfulfilling roles with dim prospects for advancement."

The study also stated: "Men, on average, were more concerned with being successful in their work and feeling that society should invest in them because their ideas are better than most people's, whereas women felt more strongly that no one should be without life's necessities."  Lubinski believes that the findings of the study will help throws some light on the lack of equal opportunity in the workforce.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/08/women-success_n_6219586.html