Libertarian Billionaires Paying For Daycare Won't Bridge The Science Gender Gap

Article here. Excerpt:

'Women have long out-paced men in academia, yet they remain underrepresented in certain areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (commonly referred to as the STEM fields). Since STEM graduates not only have more job opportunities, but also higher paying jobs, many see boosting women’s participation in these disciplines as a key to reaching gender equality. There has been no dearth of public and private efforts to try to “solve” the problem. And the latest to get in the game is libertarian billionaire David Koch, who last week pledged $20 million to MIT to build a top-of-the-line childcare facility in an effort to attract and retain more women in the STEM fields.
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In other words, attracting talented women to MIT hasn’t been the challenge; what they study when they get there is. And fancy childcare won’t impact that determination.

What Mr. Koch overlooks is that men and women are different. They have different strengths, preferences, and aptitudes. And it’s revealed at even the highest levels of academic and professional success. Building a luxury childcare facility may attract some women who were considering where to pursue their graduate research or accept a faculty position; but more likely it will just be an added perk to women and men already at the university.

This is not to suggest that women can’t pursue math or science – plenty do. But Mr. Koch has fallen for the line that “if only we had better childcare” we could achieve parity in the sciences, and then women and men would be equal. But Mr. Koch should recognize, as he does when it comes to other policy areas like tax law and government regulation, that the Left’s definition of equality mistakenly focuses on outcomes rather than opportunities.'