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Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

This is not a sufficient explanation. There’s more women in law and medicine, which are equally, if not more demanding. There must be something else - the nature of work (more people, less machines), the atmosphere (less bro, more professional), the pay (STEM careers plateau quickly)...

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> There’s more women in law and medicine, which are equally, if not more demanding.

There exists plenty of gender disparity within these fields. Many more women in pediatrics, obgyn and family law, many more men in surgery, for instance. I'd like to see a study of these disparities to see if the subfields women choose have the benefits this author suggest is a major cause of women leaving STEM.

Law and medicine don't Logan's run you out with a constantly and pointlessly changing tech stack every five years.

It would happen in medicine if the public generally knew the truth.

The risk of a medical error rises by about 1% for every year a doctor is out of school.

Either AMA's continuing education requirements are lacking, or something else is at work.

I've heard that number before, where is it from? Does it control for the idea that more experienced practitioners tend to be called on for more complex operations?

This article suggests that while errors increase with the age of the practitioner, mortality does not. The difference is more likely to result from differences in training. There is also a lot of variation between individuals, with some older doctors far outperforming their younger counterparts.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/should-doctors-age-ma...

Law and medicine allow for maternity leave.

In academia, you have a set amount of time to get tenure. It is not extended for pregnancy. If you don't get tenure, your career is basically over.

While the article talks about leaving STEM it focuses on PhDs and academia. This is an academia problem, it's not specific to STEM.

I’ve heard pregnancy gave you an extra year

Yes, and this is discussed in the article too.

I don’t have any compelling evidence at hand, but professionals on STEM fields usually seem compelled to engage on career-related activities off their work hours, which is pretty much impossible during childbearing years.

You’ve never met a doctor in his/her prime? Doctors are extremely overworked in their late 20s.

It's right there in the article. You can't take a break from academia. Well, you can, but your career prospects suffer horribly. A quote: "Taking a year off during that critical 5 or 6 year period often means that the research “goes bad” ... You wind up needing to rebuild much more than just a year’s worth of effort."

Compare it with e.g. big tech - a hypothetical female PM who has just completed a big project can go off on a maternity leave and return to the memories of her success slightly faded, her contacts gone slightly cold, but otherwise she can start more or less where she left.

There is a sufficient explanation in TFA.

Also women in business.

Law and medicine are traditionally seen as high status and may retain women longer, but certainly, suffer the same issue; women over 30 drop off dramatically in law as they leave to become parents.

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