What do people mean when they say that Neuroscience is a "female major"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think of neuroscience as what kids say when they really want to major in psych, but don't want to sound dumb.

+1

[Anonymous]

Most boys just aren’t smart enough, or received inadequate science education in highschool. There are many exceptions, but it’s a girl major because girls can handle it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ivy kid, overall has close to 50:50 females to males. The following stem majors have more females for the classes of 2027 and 2026:

-Biology, BioEngineering, chemE, molecular/materials science, chemistry, neuroscience, environmental science, environmental engineering. Even CS is 45% female.

There are even phD programs in some
Stem fields that have tipped in favor of females as far as the applicant pool, in the last 2 yrs. It will be more soon.

Chemistry and Chem Eng are female majors??

Of course. I can think of very few males in these majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think of neuroscience as what kids say when they really want to major in psych, but don't want to sound dumb.

Not true. The study of neurons at the bio/molecular level is as science as it gets. At the system level as well, where thousands of neurons come together as a system to produce an emotion or reflex or behavior (e.g., fear, or feeling the need to scratch your feet). It is the last part that tries to quantify emotion or behavior through surveys that makes it feel like psychology/sociology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this is all a myth. Men and women don't have disparate interests in academics. This is the same trope that tells us that women like to work as elementary school teachers while men like work as drywall hangers.

How can you say it is a myth that women are more likely to be elementary school teachers than men? Do you have eyes?

My daughter went into marine biology and I was surprised to see that it is also a female dominated field (which is not a bad thing. )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Neuroscience is basically psychology with a strong STEM/Biology component. A lot of females are drawn to psychology because they value relationships and people. The STEM/biology piece works for pre-med. For pre-med, it’s a lot easier than a biology or chemistry major.

What? The neuroscience major is extremely difficult. You have to take tons of chem (including organic), biology, physics, etc. Not for the faint of heart.

It's easier than chemistry or biology because neuroscience majors take the same base classes (organic chemistry, biochemistry, etc) but instead of tough 300 and 400 advanced/capstone classes in your major, you take intro psychology classes (100 or 200 level). Basically, you sub hard upper level classes with easy classes. So yeah, it's easier.

This is 100% NOT the case at DD's college. She has to take the same number of 300/400 level classes as a bio major. She decided on neuropsych rather than bio as her major because the biology major requires a several plant biology and marine biology classes, which she has no interest in. She is pre-med and the neuropsych major requires all of the same chemistry, physics, and "human" biology classes as the bio major ...it's a better fit for her but not easier.

[Anonymous]

"Female major" has nothing to do with how hard a major is. It means more popular with females than other majors.