# what are the fields where women dominate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326 "2004-05-03T19:40:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/21 "2004-05-04T03:45:21Z")
> [@PictsiePat](#): > > Swimming down stream in a river is not the same as swimming across the english channel. I will give you however that a man has gone across the EC in 7 hrs 17 minutes while the best women’s time is 7 hrs 40 mins by your site. Pretty close. And I don’t know if that site is even reputable. I was just trying to throw some objective verification into the whole discussion. BTW the OP calls for fields where women dominate. Close does not equal domination. > [@PictsiePat](#): > > Mr. Pict will verify my second assertion. Oh, I trusted you! Plus I figured that if I started looking for sites to verify the world record for multiple orgasms, I might get distracted and not post at all. > [@PictsiePat](#): > > chill :wally Putz, eh? :dubious: Well, look… obviously I wasn’t trying to specifically pick on you (or **Chefguy** for that matter) - just trying to insert some facts into a factual discussion. Cheers - Peter Wiggen ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/22 "2004-05-04T08:29:22Z")
I heard recently that medical schools and law schools in the USA have become fairly balanced in terms of gender. Anyone have any stats on this? ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/23 "2004-05-04T10:02:48Z")
Cold water swimming. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/24 "2004-05-04T13:58:53Z")
Sorry PeterW, forgot this was GQ. (ME) :smack: ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/25 "2004-05-04T14:10:35Z")
Women, on average, seem to be able to handle higher G forces than men, according to the military folks who train fighter pilots. They mumble a lot about different body proportions but it seems pretty clear they don’t really know why. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/26 "2004-05-04T14:12:44Z")
Can’t recall many male synchronised swimming teams. ---
**Author:** ![Frank\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Frank\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_2)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/27 "2004-05-04T14:15:17Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > I can’t find a cite to back this up but I once read that the top female billiards players could probalby beat the top male players. I know you can’t produce it, but I’d love to see that cite. From what I can find, nearly all the World records are held by men, the sexes play in their own organizations (no mixed games), and the Mosconi Cup (like the Ryder Cup in golf) is only played by men. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/28 "2004-05-04T14:40:46Z")
> [@Frank #2](#): > > I know you can’t produce it, but I’d love to see that cite. From what I can find, nearly all the World records are held by men, the sexes play in their own organizations (no mixed games), and the Mosconi Cup (like the Ryder Cup in golf) is only played by men. Yeah, I wish I could find it too (I went looking last night). It was in an article about the very topic we’re discussing - why men dominate sports and does there need to be seperate divisions for men and women in all sports. And I remember billiards being mentioned specifically as a sport where there may not be a reason to have the division any longer. But, without a cite, who knows what that article was based on… :dubious: Btw, I did find this Christian Science Monitor [article](http://search.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/10/08/fp1s5-csm.shtml) on the subject but no mention of billiards. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/29 "2004-05-04T17:25:53Z")
[QUOTE=shijinn] what are the fields where women dominate? [QUOTE] Marriage. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/30 "2004-05-04T18:27:18Z")
> [@ltfire](#): > > A man can’t be a bitch. 🆒 What rock have you been hiding under? I know plenty of male bitches, and I don’t mean in the “he’s my bitch” sense. Some vet schools are now admitting classes that are 60-70% female, which is reflective of the applicant pool. Once you get down to the level of techs and assistants, though, it’s pretty much all women. I’ve known exactly three male techs in my life, all of them at my current job. (Two of them huddle in the corner while the rest of us discuss female TMI stuff, while the other simply pretends not to hear us.) While trying to fill positions at my previous job, we got a whopping two male applicants out of about 60. I think it’s safe to say that veterinary medicine, at the ancillary staff level if not overall, is a field where women dominate. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/31 "2004-05-04T19:19:29Z")
I suspect that the obsessiveness is a real big factor for men getting better at one thing, which is the kind of thing that tends to get praised. The danger is to assign a subconcious value judgement to this ability. Women are different from men, and isn’t it that a good thing? I’d say that women are better at relating to people, and that’s no small thing at all. The list of blundering men, especially younger ones, is so long as to be a little depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/32 "2004-05-04T20:10:58Z")
> [@Sir Prize](#): > > Women can beat men at ultramarathons (100 miles) While they can win individual races, in all but one category men have the world records. [http://www.americanultra.org/stats/world\_records.htm](http://www.americanultra.org/stats/world_records.htm) I would just like to point out that, male or female, these people are nuts. ---
**Author:** ![cichlidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/33 "2004-05-04T21:31:13Z")
> [@PictsiePat](#): > > Distance swimming, IE the english channel. Susie Maroney is listed on the Guinness site under longest ocean swim: > [@](#): > > Longest Ocean Swim > Australian Susie Maroney swam a record 197 km (122 miles) from Mexico to Cuba, covering the longest distance ever swum without flippers in open sea. She completed the marathon water journey in 38 hours and 33 minutes, arriving in Cuba on June 1, 1998. It does say “without flippers”, though. There’s also Lynne Cox, I remember watching this show on [60 Minutes II](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/12/60II/main540357.shtml) about her Antarctic swim which also lists some of her other accomplishments: > [@](#): > > At 14, she swam California’s Catalina Channel — 21 miles in 12 hours. At 15, she set the women’s and men’s record in the English Channel. Then in 1987, in the midst of the Cold War, she was first to swim from Alaska to the Soviet Union — a five-mile swim through 40-degree water that warmed the Cold War. and the Antarctic swim: > [@](#): > > In all of 25 minutes, she’s done it. And she’s done better than she hoped. Measured by a navigation satellite she’s covered 1.22 miles. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/34 "2004-05-04T22:38:12Z")
Nursing is pretty much female dominated. You do find the occasional guy with a nursing degree, and their numbers are inching up. ---
**Author:** ![quothz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/da6949/32.png) [@quothz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quothz)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/35 "2004-05-05T00:40:40Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > And I remember billiards being mentioned specifically as a sport where there may not be a reason to have the division any longer. That doesn’t make any sense. If women would dominate men, there’s certainly a reason to have a division. (This would be the same reason we have divisions in other sports.) ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/36 "2004-05-05T00:41:15Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > What rock have you been hiding under? I know plenty of male bitches, and I don’t mean in the “he’s my bitch” sense. > > Some vet schools are now admitting classes that are 60-70% female, which is reflective of the applicant pool. Once you get down to the level of techs and assistants, though, it’s pretty much all women. I’ve known exactly three male techs in my life, all of them at my current job. (Two of them huddle in the corner while the rest of us discuss female TMI stuff, while the other simply pretends not to hear us.) While trying to fill positions at my previous job, we got a whopping two male applicants out of about 60. I think it’s safe to say that veterinary medicine, at the ancillary staff level if not overall, is a field where women dominate. Bitch. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/37 "2004-05-05T00:53:53Z")
**Dominatrix**! Jeez, that one was obvious. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/38 "2004-05-05T01:56:52Z")
Massage therapy is very much a female dominated field. When my class started last semester, out of twenty-four students, seven were male. We’re down to thirteen now, four males. It’s actually a shame, because in my experience in being worked on by both professionals and my classmates, I think the guys have more natural talent. Women tend to have “pokey fingers”, which is a phenomenon I have never experienced when being worked on by a man. Women also tend to work flat-handed more, which results in the tuberosities at the bases of the phalanges and ends of the metacarpal bones being worked into the body, which is very uncomfortable, especially when going over areas where the muscle tissue overlying the bone is very thin. Men tend to mold their hands around the contours of the body, which makes firm pressure a much more pleasurable experience. So, basically we’re talking about a field that men are better suited for, but in which they are outnumbered more than two to one by women. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/39 "2004-05-05T16:26:52Z")
> [@ltfire](#): > > Bitch. > 😃 is a smiley enough to make this a joke? 😕 so anyway, ultramarathons’ out and billiards’ unconfirmed? massage therapy wag: while man may be better suited for it, women are in higher demand? (hmm, perhaps there is a flaw in the OP. just because the top few are male/female, it doesn’t equal domination.) ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326/40 "2004-05-05T18:23:21Z")
> [@cichlidiot](#): > > Susie Maroney is listed on the Guinness site under longest ocean swim: > > It does say “without flippers”, though. I’ve just learned about this stuff over the last couple of days, mainly because of this thread. What they don’t tell you is that these people find the best tides they can, which makes it much easier to do. From one of the links above I saw a 28 mile swim in 5:45, which is almost 5 miles an hour, or faster then the fastest male Olympic swimmer in the mile. And by a minute or so. The “without flippers” is beacuse you can really move using flippers. Who knows what else she might have used though, hand paddles or other things that are not used in other open water swims. These types of swims are all too easy to “cheat” so I’m not sure they can be used to compair anyone to anyone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-fields-where-women-dominate/243326.md?page=3)