Studies of the Gender Gap in Technology

We came back to feminism this week, both in the in-class video on women in computer science and briefly in Chapter 3 of Pressed for Time, when Wajcman explained the disparity in work/leisure breakdown with respect to gender. Coincidentally, my statistics professor chose to use med school admittance rates as an example this week, as well. It turns out that, according to the latest data available, for any given MCAT score a woman gets, she has the same chances of getting into medical school as a man who scored almost exactly 1.2 points higher.

Now, this analysis assumes that MCAT score and gender are the only relevant factors affecting med school admission, an assumption that is almost certainly false, and this data is based on the old MCAT scoring system, where each point is worth much more. Still, while the statistician is content to present the data, the anthropologist seeks the reason why.

In 2017, a little over a third of American doctors were women. Approximately 80% of med students graduate in 4 years, and in 2017, for the first time, more women than men were enrolled in med school (barely). Even with a point edge in the MCAT, women barely squeaked ahead. It’s also worth pointing out that 1 point, while significant in the old system, is still inherently interested in borderline applicants anyway. An applicant would probably see that much of a difference in their scores if they took the MCAT multiple times. This is not a case of grossly under-qualified women beating out droves of deserving men in the name of diversity; this is applicants who were likely on the borderline anyway getting edged out by someone who’s score was probably statistically identical to theirs. No one who scored a 30 on the old style MCAT is getting rejected.

A 50–50 split in med school is a good thing. The census bureau doesn’t appear to track non-binary gender yet, but the demographics in the US for the ages between 15 and 64 (that is, prime age for both med students and doctors) is 1:1, and one sign of an equitable society it that demographics are universal. If anything, we need to get MORE women into med school in the very short term to swing that 1:2 ratio of actual doctors more towards that ideal, but the problem appears to be self correcting anyway at this point. When the class of 2021 begin to retire several decades from now, it seems likely the ratio of men to women doctors will be that of the general populace.