Life in harsh settings tends to be unisex and less experimental. As rules become defined, male variations become more disruptive...until a meteor falls.

Christina Hoff Sommers:

“This past Tuesday the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a non-political, objective study of women in academic science entitled Gender Difference at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering and Mathematics Faculty. The study was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and mandated by Congress. It contradicts key findings of Beyond Bias and Barriers. According to its executive summary:

“Our survey findings do indicate that, at many critical transition points in their academic careers (e.g., hiring for tenure-track and tenure positions and promotions) women appear to have fared as well as or better than men...

“Education Department projections though 2017 show a worsening picture for men with every passing year. If there is a crisis in the academy that merits a congressional investigation, it is not that women Ph.D.s are being shortchanged in math and science hiring and tenure committees, for that is not true. It is that men are quickly becoming the second sex in American education.”

http://www.american.com/archive/2009...new-second-sex

See also http://www.american.com/archive/2008...ore-like-a-man

Parker, Kathleen (2008) Save the Males: Why Men Matter and Why Women Should Care. NY: Random House.