Discrimination by Sex

I found this somewhat improbable story via slashdot. In the (in my opinion, unlikely) event that this study is confirmed by further study, we may have the long sought explanation for the paucity of women in science and engineering. So give it up Sean - it's got to be hormonal.

The conclusion of the study was that parental occupation has a strong influence on the sex of the children.
But according to calculations by chief researcher Satoshi Kanazawa, for engineers and other "systemisers" the ratio is 140 boys per 100 girls.

Nurses and the like produce around 135 girls for every 100 boys, the study found.

Mr Kanazawa predicted that a physicist and a mathematician would be the most likely pairing to produce a boy, while a therapist and a chat show host would be odds-on favourites for a daughter.
If we further assume that children's occupations will resemble those of their parents, we can explain why there are so few female physicists.

The problem is, they can't reproduce. Female physicists will have mainly male children, and so will male physicists - unless married to chat show hosts - and I can promise that there aren't any physicists married to chat show hosts. Consequently, all the physics aptitude gets concentrated in the male sex

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