5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

In 2010, anthropologist Joseph Henrich and his colleagues introduced the term WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) to draw attention to the limited scope of cross-cultural research and the need for more diversity in the populations studied. Similarly, comparative analyses of gender inequality in STEM fields long suffered from a lack of diversity in the populations considered. This is important, because evidence is growing that mathematically intensive fields are more gender-integrated in many “non-WEIRD (and reputably gender-traditional) societies. Observed patterns of cross-national variability challenge some long-held assumptions about the relationships between economic development, gender-liberal values, and the degendering of career outcomes. This session invites papers that further explore our understanding of this so-called “paradox” from cross-national and country-specific perspectives. Studies from non-Western contexts are particularly welcome.