>>11315602in poor countries, women participate way more in STEM. in other words, it is not a universal phenomenon. it only happens in certain societies, namely rich western cultures and far eastern cultures. There is much more gender parity in southern asia, the middle-east, latin america, and africa than there is in US/Canada, Europe, Russia, and East Asia.
the arguments for why this is so are varied, but my personal take on it is that the academic lifestyle requires lots of support from one's family. i.e. to become a star student, usually you need to have support from your family. and going into stem is usually for star students. in poorer areas, rich families who want a scientist child will push it regardless of whether their child is male or female, and children of such families have much lower opportunities if they alienate the wishes of their parents and choose to go it alone in their country. therefore the parents who make scientists are the most responsible for this, but their ability to dictate their children's behavior is least potent in places where children have the opportunity to define their own future rather than following their family's prescriptions (which often shoehorn a child of one sex into the role they had preconceived that would have been more accepted by a child of the other gender)
[this post is a HOT TAKE that you will NEVER SEE in mainstream literature. but of course nobody cares]
