A few thoughts:
(1) I agree with Nanani, and think it would be awful to actively try to “recruit” females, or even really do anything to entice them to come/stay. Though I appreciate the spirit of the post nonetheless because I think it’s a very interesting and important issue, and I think it’s okay to acknowledge it and question it. If anything, efforts to even out the male/female imbalance would have to be made on a much greater scale to start to see change.
(2) Do people really think that it’s an issue of females frequenting Less Wrong and then LEAVING? I doubt it. I suspect that a much lower proportion of females even happen upon the blog in the first place. This would eliminate a number of the explanations.
(3) This is an issue that deeply intrigues me. I have some fairly simple theories. Unfortunately, I am not well-versed enough in evol. psych., gender studies, history, sociology, etc. to feel like I have enough background to really get at the heart of the matter. So most of my ideas are purely anecdotal.
I believe that females on a whole are less interested in intellectual pursuits. Particularly intellectual pursuits that are HARD and take a higher amount of mental horsepower to grasp. Period. The question is: Why?
From my own experience, I’ve found myself to be less INNATELY CURIOUS than many of my male counterparts. Once I get onto a topic, I can puzzle over it for hours at a high level, but if the topic is not in front of me, my brain can be content to space out and think trivial things. Once I realized this was the case, I started to actively work to be more curious and to think more. When I’m sitting around spacing out, I will actually tell myself that I should start thinking about a problem. My brain does not do this automatically.
Now, I don’t know if this is purely a messed up issue that I have to deal with, or if it extends across the female gender. From observing other females, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that others would face the same lack of intellectual curiosity.
My big question is where does this come from? It’s either biological or social. I used to think it was biological (this helped me reconcile the fact that I had to work overtime and be more aware so that I could become more interested in things in the first place). Now I think it’s entirely possible that the explanation is social and that females, through media/peer groups/etc. simply are not encouraged to be as curious about intellectual issues and by the time they are older, they’ve simply stopped thinking. (This is all pertaining to females as a group, not particular individuals).
(4) I don’t think the atmosphere (meanness) of this site is the problem. Enough females are thick-skinned. I think it’s simply the subject matter. Though I agree that it’s possible that the ratio of females is slightly higher than what is apparent because of their relative silence. I personally have a much higher fear of rejection to comments, etc. This extends to in-person interactions, and upon the slightest rejection, I will quickly shut up.
I am a PhD chemist (currently post-doc); my partner is a Physics professor. He has often said that the most selfless thing we could do would be to teach high school science. It is a super important job capable of changing lives, where talented people can really shine, but at the same time can be exhausting, soul-sucking, and tedious.
I think nursing is similar in a way.
My mom is a nurse, and my two younger sisters are nurses (the youngest still finishing school). When my youngest sister decided to start nursing school (she was undecided for a long time), I thought that really, it was an extremely practical choice. Unlike many jobs, nursing is unlikely to become obsolete. Also, there are jobs everywhere, the pay is good, the work brings new challenges every day, etc, etc. It makes sense.
I guess one of the big reasons I wanted to comment (I haven’t commented on Less Wrong in two years or so), in addition to wanting to make the comparison with teaching at the high school level, is to offer a word of caution.
From my experience living in a family of nurses, I would say: “beware the administration trap.” If you are really good at your job, you will likely be offered a promotion to administration. Administration is nothing like actual nursing. You don’t deal with patients anymore—now you deal with the nurses, and generally the more incompetent ones. I think this is true of many professions—where “doing” the job and being an administrator are completely different, but it’s definitely an issue you’ll likely come up against here. Nursing, like teaching K-12, is a tough job because—even if you’re extremely bright and good at what you do—you are surrounded by co-workers who may be less bright and less good at what they do. Nursing, at least based on my impressions, is like being in high school again with a bunch of gossipy school girls or being at the neighborhood barbecue with gossipy women. It just doesn’t offer the same bubble of intellect that say, academia, would… or the same sort of environment that being in a tech company or being an entrepreneur or whatever would. So, I hope that aspect doesn’t crush your soul, and that you can take the positive parts of the profession and run with them. The thing about the medical field is that there are infinite avenues for self-improvement, and you can continue to challenge yourself and become better at your work—especially if you make sure to choose your promotions wisely and not go the administration route (assuming you don’t want that) but rather go the route of various sorts of specialization. My sister has only been nursing for 4 years or so and was kicking butt and so was quickly promoted to some sort of administrative role. She quit that within a matter of months, and has now started taking a bunch of courses to increase her skill set. My mom has been director of a nursing home, making really good money, for 8 or so years now, and it has just slowly crushed her. She finally decided she had to quit, even though her and my dad are not completely financially stable, and put in her resignation a few months ago. She has already found a position in an independent specialist/consultant type role. Even after nursing for years and being a VERY GOOD administrator—she still prefers working directly with patients.