My experience of ID education is that it is a real ‘sausage fest’- and by that I mean not just a lot more males than females in the classes, but some classes did become like locker-rooms, behaviour that was really ‘blokey’ and ‘laddish’. The flip side to this was that the women who did study tended to do really well because they wanted to be there and really put in the effort, plus had personalitiies where they didn’t put up with any sort of crap, or maybe they were used to those environments (had brothers maybe).
It’s better for research and problem solving to have a diverse and pluralistic group as possible, and I learnt more (especially those “I’d never thought of it that way” moments) from people with different points of view. JOHARI, you don’t know what you dont know.
Every year the local state branch of the D.I.A. holds a meet ‘n’ greet night between students and practioners, for ID, graphics, architecture and interiors. All the male ID students jaws hit the floor when they see all the women studying everything but ID. Interiors in particular seems to be the opposite of ID in makeup- they mostly seem to be very glamourous and good looking women.