Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2009-04-24/Women in engineering

Wikipedia Mediation Cabal
Article	[[{{{article}}}]] ([[Talk:{{{article}}}|Talk page]])
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Request date	01:11, 24 April 2009 (UTC)
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Where's the dispute?

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Women_in_engineering

What's the dispute?

The dispute is on the statement, "Innate biological differences in ability contribute to the under representation of women in engineering." (See sections in the article on "Biological Factors" and "Inappropriate reversion" on the discussion page).

Debate

The following is a quote from the one of the references given to "prove" that spatial sense is a contributor to under representation of women in engineering. The other user is clearly using this reference out of context and in no way does this paper conclude his supposedly well established and acknowledged link to be true (in fact, it claims the opposite):

"The existence of a gender difference on only one task cannot begin to account for such vast differences in choice of profession." (The Effect of Spatial Experience on Engineering Students’ Visualization Abilities)

Tricia20 (talk) 20:54, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

The argument is based on research that males outperform females on tasks of mental rotation. Many references have been provided to support the claim that males outperform females on such tasks. However, no strong link between this ability and enrollment/success of women in engineering has been provided. Initially, no reference was provided to substantiate this link. After being pressed on this, as a first attempt to prove that such a link exists, an aptitude test was provided as a reference, which concludes nothing and simply shows that a test has been developed to test an individual's spatial ability (among other things). Also a reference was provided to a study titled 'Is the gender difference in mental rotation disappearing?' which states that, "Mental rotation tests such as the one we have described are used ... for selection of candidates for drafting, architecture, and engineering programs". This is not an adequate reference. Firstly, the paper is not about the effectiveness of mental rotation as a predictor of enrollment/success in engineering. Secondly, many different things are used for selection of candidates for engineering programs - as a part of my application process, I had to write a book review. In no way does this make conclusions on the effectiveness of reading comprehension as a predictor of success/enrollment in engineering.

Many many studies have been completed on the under representation of women in engineering which focus on both enrollment and success of women in engineering. Ultimately, If this was such a well established cause of under representation of women in engineering, it would be well documented and it would be possible to find a paper published which makes direct conclusions on the effectiveness of mental rotation as a predictor of enrollment or success in engineering.

It seems quite obvious to me that the individual posting this statement is grasping at straws to find proof for his personal (and unsubstantiated) theory. It is quite clear that his belief in this theory is not based on any peer-reviewed research or he would have provided this upfront to substantiate his claims rather that providing flaky references in hind-sight upon the issue being pressed.

Most importantly, please consult Wikipedia's standard of Verifiability. If no research paper exists that has examined and concluded on the impact of mental rotation on the under representation of women in engineering then this is not a verifiable cause of under representation. It is simply one individual's theory and should not be presented as a fact and does not belong on Wikipedia.

As a senior engineering student, I am fully aware of the extremely different skill sets that can make up a successful engineer. Which is why I find it hard to believe that this difference in mental rotation is the cause (or even a significant contributor) of under representation of women in engineering. Without a single source that comments on this theory it absolutely does not belong on Wikipedia presented as a well established fact.

Personally, I am in a program (Mechanical Engineering) which most would assume would require one of the highest levels of mental rotation. I personally have terrible spatial sense. However, I am still extremely successful both in the classroom and in the workplace. If his theory was true and the link was so profound, then I should be at the bottom of my class and struggling to maintain employment. Engineering is an extremely broad field which encompasses so much. I know that this anecdotal evidence does not prove anything - however, neither does his personal theory. Tricia20 (talk) 20:19, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Please sign your post for clarity. I have changed this page so that the topic of the dispute is more clear, and put your arguments into the "Dispute" section. I hope you don't mind.

Tricia seems to accept the fact that women have, on average, much lower spatial skills then men, especially on certain tests, such as the Mental Rotation Test, since it is supported by such a massive amount of evidence. This topic seems to have been studied for almost 40 years, and many meta-analyses of these studies have been done. The effect spatial skills have on ability in engineering is also well supported, by the references I have given. Also, many of my references make the connection between lower female spatial skills and lower potential in engineering. Further, even if this is not the case, the fact that tests such as Mental Rotation are used on admissions tests, implies that the enrollment of females may be lower by virtue of poorer scores on these tests.
I really don't know what Tricia means by, "flaky". The references I have given appear in influential, peer-reviewed publications and have received a high number of citations. I don't think that questioning the statements of these references is appropriate. The reference Tricia refers to was published in Behavior Genetics and has received 113 citations. The reason I included Differential Aptitude Test (5th ed.), is that it summarizes the evidence that the DAT correlates with course grades in drafting, data processing, graphics, and engineering.

--66.189.98.178 (talk) 18:52, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

"The existence of a gender difference on only one task cannot begin to account for such vast differences in choice of profession." (The Effect of Spatial Experience on Engineering Students’ Visualization Abilities)

This is a quote from one of YOUR OWN REFERENCES (which you claim have not been taken out of context)

"The effect spatial skills have on ability in engineering is also well supported, by the references I have given. Also, many of my references make the connection between lower female spatial skills and lower potential in engineering."

This is simply not true. The references do not make any connection between lower female spatial skills and under representation of women in engineering. The references you have provided have not researched this connection and to imply otherwise is simply misrepresenting the studies you cite.

I personally never did a test on mental rotation for my admission application (nor do I know of any engineering school in Canada which requires such a test) so this is not used invariably by all schools. Many things have been anecdotally associated with success in engineering and are used in selection of candidates at some schools without any research on their effectiveness as an indicator of success. Just because this is one of the many things schools use does not mean that this conclusively contributes to under representation of women in engineering.

Regarding the your references being "flaky", I say this not because the sources are flaky but because of the context in which you are using them. In no way do I question the conclusions of the citations. However, none of the references make the conclusions that differences in mental rotation contribute to under representation of women in engineering. In fact some conclude otherwise (see above).

It simply boils down to the fact that none of your references make any conclusions on mental rotation as a cause of under representation of women in engineering.

Again, if this is so well established, why can't you provide one study which has been completed ON THIS TOPIC (not the topic of gender and spatial sense but the topic of spatial sense as a reason for under representation of women in engineering). Tricia20 (talk) 20:19, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Also, I would like to comment on the following reference: 'The Effect of Spatial Experience on Engineering Students’ Visualization Abilities'

This has been your closest attempt at showing the connection between spatial sense and engineering however, all that this reference states is that spatial differences have been shown to be a reliable predictor of success in engineering GRAPHICS design class.

If you think this proves your connection, you obviously don't know too much about engineering as a profession. In my degree out of 43 required courses we have ONE course in first year on graphics design. Further, many disciplines have NONE.

It is quite a jump to say that spatial sense is a predictor of success in one first year course so therefore it must be a predictor of all of all engineering disciplines as a whole. This paper explicitly states that "the existence of a gender difference on only one task cannot BEGIN to account for such vast differences in choice of profession."

Further, this same study states that "This suggests that while a certain degree of visualization ability may be innate, performance is also dependant on experience, and therefore it is a learnable skill. This is supported by Peters, Chisolm and Laeng (1995)and by Greenfield, Brannon and Lohr (1994),". Which would nullify the entire argument because if visualization is a learnable skill then differences between the genders are not likely to be "innate biological differences"

The fact that your ONLY reference making any link between spatial ability and engineering EXPLICITLY states that this cannot account for under representation of women in engineering PROVES that you are taking references out of context to spread your own personal biases.

I am removing all your misinformation from the Women in Engineering Page until this is resolved. I will not replace it with anything contrary until this has been resolved.

Please respect that and stop vandalizing this page. Tricia20 (talk) 20:48, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

I indented your response so it's easier to read.

Please note that I did not use the source you are referring to in order to show that gender differences in engineering are explained by spatial differences. I am simply using this source to show that spatial abilities contribute to potential in engineering. I have tons of other sources showing how large the gender gap is in spatial ability.

--66.189.98.178 (talk) 20:28, 25 April 2009 (UTC)