To think University Challange is sexist

[Uhohmummy]

Rounds on tonight's episode include "women and their husbands" and a picture round identifying male cricketers.
As usual, there's just one woman in the 8 contestants.
It surely cant be the case that most male students are cleverer than women so why aren't there more women on there each week? DH thinks it's because they just don't apply but I think there must be some other, possibly soft, barriers to women applying.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone agrees (or not).

It matters because its a show which inevitably sends a message 'this is what brainy university students look like'. Whereas actually its drawn from a small, largely self-selected subset.

It matters because its a show which inevitably sends a message 'this is what brainy university students look like'.

While the point you make is valid, it's complicated by the fact that the kind of knowledge UC showcases is only one manifestation of 'braininess' and one that's quite limited and shallow IYAM.

However, I get that it's a very visible manifestation. And that in itself is a separate problem. Why do we promote competitive fact spouting at the expense of more profound knowledge? At least part of this is because it's good TV (in a way that literary analysis for example isn't). I don't think it's as big a problem as you suggest, though I don't think it should be dismissed entirely.

I really don't take much notice as I'm just pleased when I manage to answer a couple of questions, plus JP is so rude to the students (who all look far too old to be at Uni).

Errol I was absolutely guilty of having seen that 'fact' in the paper without knowing the source. Whether the broader issue of exam types and gender is a fallacy though is less certain. There has been quite a bit of research into this at university level - a big piece of work done at Cambridge for example to look at the disparity between the number of men and women gaining Firsts.

My six year old loves it when she sees women on the TV, and definitely notices. She'll cheer women contestants on over men, and is very excited about the female Doctor Who.

Entirely anecdata but in my own life experience the people who like to brandish a fact and bash people on the head with it are more likely to be male on the whole.

I wonder what other imbalances there are on UC. There is definitely a gender bias. What other groups is it biased towards and which other groups are rarely seen on it - even though they must be at university?

Rugby players and rowers are hugely underrepresented .

I got all the cricketers correct - whilst I could name some women I'm more knowledgeable about the men's game

You don't get many music students.

I think very specialists courses tend to be less well-represented than say, chemistry where (in the early years at least) you'll have done some maths, some physics, some biochemistry, and covered some environmental and materials science too.

I am half way through the thread and I don't know if what I am going to say has been said.
What I find interesting is the difference between a show like university challenge and shows targeted at younger audience where you get lots of young girls participating with a lot more confidence. In general they tend to be very good compared to the boys. Dd watching CBeebies, I randomly flicked onto the older Channel once and watched the children's version. The girls where excellent. I have watched a few since and it's hosted by Susan Colman.
I have also, watched a few of the Americans type spelling bees and it has a lot of girls participating.

The question probably is, "what happens between that age group and joining university?"
Or is the new young generation of women a new thing?

Last note, the way pretty female contestants are treated is abhorrent. It's like the public is shocked that they can be that clever. (Not on the show but comments online and being picked up by newspapers)