STEMcel

A STEMcel is an individual, often comorbid autistcel, whose inceldom is said to be due mostly to the fact that they pursued studies in STEMs (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) or work in a STEM-related field.

The reason given for the existence of STEMcels is an unfavorable sex ratio. Since there is not many women in STEM, it means two things. First, that a man who pursues STEM studies is way less likely to be able to flirt with or court a woman he met throught his studies when compared to male students in other fields of studies. Second, that a man who works in a STEM-related field is less likely to be able to flirt or court a coworker. It must also be noted that most STEM jobs are jobs most women do not link to a high status or coolness, i.e. those jobs are considered by most women as jobs for nerds even though the salary is higher than average. However, those arguments are contested (see below).

Gender ratio and STEMcel rates

There does not exist any studies on the effect of co-ed workplaces or classes on incel rates. The following is some indirect evidence:

Pro evidence: Students at co-ed schools seem to be slightly more successful with the opposite sex. According to a study by Ivy Wong, students in single-sex classes report later onset of dating experience and fewer dating partners than members of co-ed classes, however the effect sizes were small (d = 0.2). In most other measures of sexual activity, there were no significant effects. A similar study by Ivy Wong demonstrated that students from single-sex classes report more anxiety around the opposite gender than students from co-ed classes, again with a small effect size (d = 0.26). Men from mixed schools also had more close friends of the opposite gender, with a moderate effect size (d = .47). These studies only concern averages, so it is not clear who benefits (potentially only high-status males). In the Donnelly Study, some incels reported gender segregation at work and lack of exposure to females in general as a cause of their celibacy, especially among male incels.

Con evidence: On the other hand, most STEM jobs are fairly high-status positions. Hence, such women are expected to become more choosy about other men's incomes (see hypergamy), primarily due to the highly competitive nature and chaotic growth of the field. Besides, with metoo and other anti-harassment measures, the workplace is becoming unpopular for dating, e.g. "meeting through coworkers" has declined 50% since 1990 despite decreasing gender segregation. Today, as many as 28% of men avoid one-on-one meetings with female work colleagues. Many workplaces actively discourage romances. Also, even though sex-segregation has decreased, incel rates are at all-time high (see demographics), which is the opposite trend on would expect if mixed sexed would help alleviating the incel epidemic. Presence of females might be a detriment for the romantic success of omega males because males engage in more bullying and punishing in the presence of females. Jordan Peterson mentioned an anecdote in which only few male university students got to have sexual relationships despite a surplus of female students. In some incel forums, incels also lamented that they have many female coworkers, but are ignored by them.

More recent research (McClintock, 2020) has indicated that heterosexual males in occupational categories that have a surplus of women are less likely to initiate cohabitation or marriage than men in more male-typical jobs (that have a high ratio of males in those professions). While this effect is argued to be mainly mediated by the social penalties of violating gender norms or the characteristics of men that are drawn to these profiles, it is interesting to note that this analysis found little evidence that mere exposure to a large amount of women at the workplace improved men's marriage prospects. The study attempted to control for potential confounding factors such as income and occupational status. There was only an effect found for men being in more "communicative jobs," which was argued to be mostly a product of the interpersonal skills demanded by such occupations. However, such findings may not necessarily apply to some STEMcels, as work may be the only real source of social opportunities for particularly socially isolated individuals like most incels are.

See also

• Mentalcel
• Autistcel

References

Well-known incel categories

See also: Causes of celibacy, and -cel