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On the occasion of a prestigious award in her field last month, associate professor Elena Bennett in McGill University’s Natural Resources Sciences and School of Environment was interviewed by the Montreal Gazette on the subject of women and science.

Bennett focused on the well-documented post-undergrad career stall for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). She attributes the gender disproportion at the high end — U.S. women comprise about 20 per cent of tenure track positions in math, 12 per cent in physics and 10 per cent in electrical engineering — to systemic misogyny, high-intensity work environments and a lack of support for mothers. Her solution: more research grants for women, no late-afternoon meetings and fewer committee obligations.

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Bennett’s perspective is standard in doctrinaire feminist circles. Ideologues believe the obstacles to numerical parity for women in STEM fields are external, and can be overcome with affirmative action. Progressive politicians support them. In 2008 Hillary Clinton deplored the fact that “women comprise 43 per cent of the workforce but only 23 per cent of scientists and engineers,” insisting that the government take “diversity into account when awarding education and research grants.” To suggest that women self-select out of STEM careers for the same reason men self-select out of early childhood education — because it is less appealing to them than other careers — has become politically incorrect.