Women´s interest
in people and living
phenomena is
reflected in what they
read
Their readings also reflect
their low interest in science
and political theory
Roxana Kreimer
@RoxanaKreimer
@feminiscience
@feminisciencia
Hegemonic feminism is worried because there are no more women in technical careers such as engineering or mathematics. In countries with more gender equality women do not exceed 20% in these careers. Less attention is given to how the focus of the careers that they choose the most (people, living things) is reflected in the books they read. 80% of fiction and 80% of self-help books are read by women (Diversity in publishing, Lee, 2015). Talks on self-help topics are attended by 80% of women. They read more books and magazines, and men read more newspapers and comics (Barómetro de hábitos de lectura, Spain, 2011). A study showed that when women read self-help books they try to apply what they have learned to their lives. (McLean, 2015)
While prehistoric men hunted, women focused on social ties to survive. A good book can guide in the understanding of a teenage son, in the differentiation between a friend and an enemy, in overcoming a pain or in the search of an investing partner.
Is there anything wrong with women being more focused on interpersonal relationships? I doubt it: caring, consoling, reconciling, facing aggression and many other skills for relationships are of fundamental importance for life. Does this mean that we should merely accept that on average women are less interested in reading newspapers and in politics (Kreimer, 2016), science (FECYT, 2016), skepticism (Kreimer, 2016) and issues of minor practical anchor? I doubt it: a greater interest of women in science, skepticism and politics would benefit the world. In the Facebook lists of skepticism and science there are only 23.4% of women (Kreimer, 2016), and this includes both the groups in which it is published in English and those in which it is published in Spanish.
Neither to force women to pursue university careers that they don´t prefer, nor to accept all the consequences that follow from the diversity of interests of each sex.
