Why Does Iran Produce Proportionately More Women in Science than the US?

Elizabeth Weingarten in a recent article in Slate reviews research into the counter-intuitive result that women in developing countries, including muslim majority countries like Iran, produce proportionately more women science graduates than developed countries like the US.  In the US women are 57% of all college graduates and 55% of science graduates (National Academies, Women in Science Statistics for 2011).  In Iran the numbers are 49% and 67%.   Iran is not unique among developing nations, particularly Islamic nations.  The US is also quite typical of the developed world.  The effect is even more dramatic in engineering where only 18% of US bachelors degrees go to women.  One reason offered for this is practical.  In countries with unemployment rates of 15% or more women opt for the most employable careers possible.  The researchers also offer a more subtle explanation.  While institutional barriers for women entering science have largely been removed there are social and cultural expectations that remain.  Women graduates, like all graduates, frequently hear admonitions such as "pursue your passion."  This leads to a conviction that we have a pre-ordained path which we must find.  Women in response find and commit to careers that are really chosen in response to subtle cultural clues.  In this way they "buy-in" emotionally to the cultural preferences thinking they have "found" their "passion."  Weingarten concludes:

"Though this may sound like a bleak assessment, it’s actually a freeing realization: Say you’ve always thought you were destined—or designed—for a particular career. That’s a powerful narrative and one that’s reinforced by the media we consume and the people we talk to about their supposed career trajectories. But this narrative can also be powerfully constraining—especially if you experience failure or crises of confidence, which most of us will or already do. If we let go of the idea that our preferences, aspirations, and capabilities are completely self-determined, perhaps we’ll truly experience a freedom of choice that has so far eluded us."