Why are law/medicine dominated by women but maths/science are not?

Because women have more opportunities now than they used to and men/women are finally being seen on a more equal basis. Therefore more women are coming out of their shells and going for jobs with a bit of power.

However there are still certain jobs that are significantly dominated by one gender. E.g. Nursing - significantly more women than men (as women are traditionally seen as 'caring'). Engineering - significantly more men than women (it is seen as quite a manly job). I think we will see true equality when this begins to change but it's a step in the right direction. I have a female friend in engineering, she was literally the only woman on her course and people often ask her what her role is when she turns up to a construction site (when she says she is obviously an engineer, they look shocked). I wish I knew the answer why it is still this way compared to other jobs but I can only assume that it is still seen as a highly manly role. A bit like being a mechanic (I guess there are lots of silly jokes and stereotypes e.g. "a woman doesn't know the difference between the wheel and the clutch")

Why not just go ahead and say women are incapable of abstract thought as you are clearly implying jamie?

You lot are as much to blame as OP here. He more or less posts the same threads with a slightly different message each time yet you all fall fir it and carry on replying.

1. Not implying that.
2. Who's jamie?

Yes you are. Literally every post you make is somewhat transparently engineered to suggest that the best course of action is for society to return to good old 50s where the bloody women knew their place as inferior beings and kept their mouths shut.

It's getting tiresome frankly.

The difference is that no one who studies law/medicine because is interested in studying law/medicine, they just do it because of their ego, money or desperate need for respect (last one is for women mostly). I am a law student though Im sure I'd enjoy studying say maths or chemistry much more. I probably wouldn't be able to do as well though and definitely wouldn't be able to pursue a financially endowing career afterwards.

The difference is that no one who studies law/medicine because is interested in studying law/medicine, they just do it because of their ego, money or desperate need for respect (last one is for women mostly). I am a law student though Im sure I'd enjoy studying say maths or chemistry much more. I probably wouldn't be able to do as well though and definitely wouldn't be able to pursue a financially endowing career afterwards.

Tell me more about your basis for suggesting the study of law is mere application which requires no abstract and original thought.

The other fields were also 100% male and women were seen as incapable, yet they are now at 50% and getting higher every year. I'm not sure if you read my OP but who would have trusted a female doctor or lawyer 60 years ago? Trusting a woman with your health, life, money or freedom? Most women didn't trust another woman doing those things, never mind men.

Check out this graph:

As I said, women might not have been trusted then but they are trusted now because of a thing called 'equality'.

I can only imagine that gender roles will have something to do with it when it comes to other jobs such as engineering, IT, mechanics (seen as quite manly because, again, there are stereotypes that women don't understand machinery) and nursing (seen as quite feminine due to the caring nature). Whereas things like law and medicine are neither particularly manly nor particularly womanly.

You're missing the point. 60 years ago, both law and medicine WERE 'manly'. They were considered rigorous, difficult, and strenuous - no place for a woman, in other words. They were perceived to be significantly more 'manly' than physics/engineering is today. Yet within 2 generations women achieved parity - without any role models, without grants or equity initiatives.

Despite that, the % of women in maths/physics/engineering/computer science has remained stationary since the 80s. Despite governments and educational bodies making enormous efforts to get more women into them, few of them seem to want to. In fact I saw a report showing a decline of the % of women in these subjects over the last couple of decades. For many subjects the peak time for women (still far below 50%) was in the 80s. I think engineering is the only subject where there's been a slight increase of 2-3% in the last 20 years.

Quite a few of my female friends did engineering and maths. I genuinely wish there were more of them in these subjects. However, an objective assessment suggests it is not 'gender roles' holding them back, but a deeper biological predisposition for liking certain types of subject.