Note that this article has been updated to also include some of the private discussions with thought leaders in the past. You can read my final overview of my research into the Millennial generation along with what I predicted and what happened as they matured at this link. While I still speak about Echo Boomers and iGenZ privately, I seldom add new articles to this specific blogspot site. If you're reaching out about a speaking engagement, you can contact me at the research firm SqlinSix.
Apparently, we need fewer men [Update: dead link removed] in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to the Obama administration: :
[Highlights snipped; read the full article for details.]
Quotas limiting the number of male students in science may be imposed by the Education Department in 2013.
...
Obama hinted that Title IX quotas would soon come to engineering and techology[.]
The author argues that this is about choice, not gender and makes an interesting point about the liberal arts:
Gender disparities in a major are not the product of sexism, but rather the differing preferences of men and women. The fact that engineering departments are filled mostly with men does not mean they discriminate against women anymore than the fact that English departments are filled mostly with women proves that English departments discriminate against men. The arts and humanities have well over 60 percent female students, yet no one seems to view that gender disparity as a sign of sexism against men. Deep down, the Obama administration knows this, since it is planning to impose its gender-proportionality rules only on the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math), not other fields that have similarly large gender disparities in the opposite direction.
This should strengthen Obama's popularity among women. In addition, I expect that this will help retain and possibly expand his popularity among female Echo Boomers.
The Unintended Effects
I do not care about the political debate on either side regardless of people's view. However, with fewer men in STEM fields, we will see fewer doctors along with fewer hours worked by doctors. I will continue to highlight this point because you will see it in the future: you have a retiring generation (Baby Boomers) which will need healthcare and policies are disincentivizing young men from attending college, who tend to study career paths that lead to medicine. Healthcare will be extremely expensive in the future, but mostly because of the effects on labor that policies like these have.
On a pertinent side note, if you limit the number of men who can enter STEM fields, you'll also have even fewer men attend college. However, I've long said that the best opportunities for young men are no longer in the United States of America in the same manner that the best opportunities for young men in the Soviet Union were not in the Soviet Union.
