Philosophy and engineering, I believe, remain the few disciplines where the ratio of men:women is greatly skewed towards the men. I personally think it has something to do with the fact that these are the oldest professions on the planet.
The word scientist first entered the English language in 1834(ref below). Of course this doesn’t mean that this was the inception of science, but one may say the profession of scientist did not exist before then. Copernicus, Newton, Galileo practised astronomy which we now call a science but in their time they would have referred to as mathematicians and astronomers (remember, not a scientist). Women have made their mark in science. And scientist isn’t exactly an old profession.
Philosophy and engineering have existed as professions for literally thousands of years. And thousands of years ago, I don’t know of a single civilisation that wasn’t essentially a patriarchal society.
Whilst women have entered the fields, I think we are slowly but surely bridging the gap. Whether we are ever able to, is another question entirely. Since these professions have been dominated by men, some very stereotypical ideas have entered the field. I believe this mentality is essentially the root cause of any gender discrimination at work. Whilst it may have been a big problem, I know that women are now encouraged to enter these fields. Organisations have been set up within companies and independently to monitor and control (punish?) gender discrimination.
At least, that’s what I think.
What’s really interesting is the impact that female ideologies may have had on philosophy. How would philosophy as we know it today be different if we had such significant women scholars as those of ancient Greece?
But I leave that question to the philosophers.