STEM Field: A Summary

Furthermore, Professor Cartland discloses the underrepresentation of women in STEM. A great majority of STEM-associated fields were dominated by men from the 1800s to today (MIT, n.d.). The inadequate representation maintained the culture of gender prejudices, causing many to view STEM as for men. However, Rachel Cartland refuses to allow her father's beliefs to dawn on her. She remains persistent in pursuit of her dream of becoming a paleontologist.

The part of woman in today's general public is some way or another questionable. Why there are so few women in science written by K.C. Cole, the author discusses the role of woman in our society in different domains. The author used personal experience to discuss and give more credibility concerning this topic. Also, K.C. Cole insisted that we are still living in a society where women are not taking all their right. In addition, women have the ability to achieve their goals if they do not give up and get influenced by others (Cole, n.d). If we give women the chance to show what she’s thinking and planning of, it can end up with a very high achievement. In my opinion, women are still less than men in some critical positions although the primary subject these days is gender equality and rights.

The stated prerogative is to introduce slow yet lasting change and to integrate more women and people of color within the STEM field; however, the plan for change, and the reason for its perceived need to be slow is nowhere addressed; , suggesting that it is rather the reluctance of men to relinquish control and allow feminization of the field (Tepperman and Curtis, 2012). Reports of these initiatives claim to be struggling struggle in attracting and keeping women within the STEM field. Yet by shifting the blame on women, the inaction taken by scientific institutions to reform the patriarchal ideals dominating the scientific realm is justified (Tepperman and Curtis, 2012). In addition, the economic paradigm that western society is built around is one that necessitates inequality to function. The Neoliberal welfare is instrumental in constructing gender

51 percent of the United States is female but only 34.4 percent of doctors are women. While 90.4 percent of nurses are female (“Women in Medicine”; “Male Nurses Becoming”), the women who do become doctors earn an astounding 25 percent less than their male counterparts (Groves). These staggering figures are only a single piece in the larger overall lack of women in STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which has remained prevalent since the beginning of these fields. Although women are underrepresented in these STEM fields, this is not due to ineptitude, but instead it is a result of the force of societal stereotypes coupled with their wider range of abilities. The recent increase in women’s association with STEM seems

All though women in STEM face many challenges as a whole, a question being posed in this study is whether or not women in math and physics intensive studies face unique obstacles. Underrepresentation in STEM seems a stubborn fact of the matter, however, it is not even across the board. The number of women present in the life sciences (sciences such as biology, environmental studies, health care, etc.), both at the academic and professional level, is much higher than the number of women present in fields that focus heavily on math, physics, and engineering. More and more women are choosing to pursue post-secondary education and enter the specialized workforce; in 2010 the AAUW found “Women currently earn over half of all doctoral degrees

Eileen P, the author of “What really keeps women out of tech” has experienced diversity in her life, while she was studying for physics. She claims that women do not suit for science and math, also they are not compatible for computer science. Girls in high school do not choose computer science as a class and they avoid it. From Pollack’s point of view this, actions are caused because girls thoughts about it is that they do not fit in those subjects. In her essay, Pollack expresses that according to Dr. Cheryan a classroom with pink decorations and nature posters, attracts females higher than room filled with Star Wars poster. It does not finish only with this, cultural reasons; especially stereotypes influence females’ decision on learning science, math and physic. The bias idea of girls should be feminine has been in the minds of people through centuries. In addition, men would not agree with a room full of girlish posters and objects. They would gradually lose interest and shift the major or job. Basically, Eileen focuses on discrimination in majors’ and why it happens through her

As a student coming from a purely humanities background, the idea that gender discrimination could occur in the field of science as a concept was completely alien to me. However it has come to light that gender discrimination in the field of science is not a myth but in fact a harsh reality for which the reasons remain skewed.

I found that changing how the media portrays them can help decrease discrimination towards women in these fields. To the studies that most correlate, maybe adding what viewers think could help a lot. That might help to pinpoint what others see and take it into account when doing the media study. By asking female science students of 21-22 years old, a better insight was gained about what it is like to be studying such fields, and what they saw in the media is different from what the general public sees. Martinot, Bages, and Desert (2012) describe how negative gender stereotypes do have an impact on students’ self-evaluations, which in turn influences their academic career choices (Martinot, Bages, and Desert 2012). From asking the general public, it was learned that not a lot of people have a straight opinion on whether it is negative stereotypes that drive young girls away. There might be a possibility that a lack of female scientist role models on TV cause girls to have less confidence that they can achieve great things. There is always going to be stereotypes no matter what in every part of society, but countering those stereotypes maybe the solution by having more positive female scientist role-models like Ms. Frizzle from Magic School Bus or Maddie Fenton from Danny Phantom, or even a more modern one a main character who is a normal teenage girl who loves engineering and goes through life like any other kid. If young girls see more brilliant, relatable, and great female scientist characters they might have more inspiration or motivation to be like those characters. This is affected when some TV shows put female scientist characters as main characters/supporting characters and make them ditzy like they do in Big Bang Theory or they have them be brilliant but show up once. What

Throughout the years, males have dominated the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with very few females finding their way in the mix (Steinberg, Okun, & Aiken, 2012). Those females enrolling in the STEM majors soon find themselves questioning why they have, and many quickly change their majors to more female-accepting professions (Steele, James, & Barnett, 2002). The view that women lack the intellect to succeeded in STEM disciplines has been a prevailing one for much of history (Cadinu, Maass, Rosabianca, & Kiesner, 2005). Many researchers have questioned whether it is social stigma impeding female success or indeed basic biological differences that make males are more successful

Eileen Pollack was one of the first two women to earn a bachelor of science degree in physics from Yale in 1978, and graduated summa cum laude with honors. However, she didn’t go on to become a physicist; she is a writer for the New York Times. Like so many other women, she was turned away from STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Bias, stereotypes, lack of encouragement, and a priority of home life contribute to the significant imbalance between women and men in STEM fields; men outnumber women in most careers and receive better treatment, which results in the loss of invaluable minds and ideas. *

Many institutions nowadays are trying to hire more female scientists and engineers. But it isn't as simple as that, cultural and religious misogynist beliefs stand in the way of women in STEM professions. Society can benefit greatly from a larger percent of women in STEM fields, it can increase the safety of civilians; therefore including more women in STEM is not only important to women, but the general public as

Multiple studies and statistics have demonstrated that women scientists face serious obstacles to promotion in STEM fields, a state of affairs that seriously hampers scientific progress. Scientific breakthrough is certainly an onerous and a nontrivial task, and effectively excluding half the population from meaningful participation slows the progress of such breakthroughs. Great women scientists such as Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin have proven beyond a doubt that women are more than capable of succeeding in these fields. Yet continual bias against women in science costs us valuable scientific researchers at every step of the academic ladder. Awards, salary, and promotion differences between males and females grow especially larger as the faculty rank increases. Only 14.8% of the full professors at the top research institutions in the life sciences are women, clearly demonstrating the skew for male research scientists [3]. Bias against researchers who are clearly capable of prominent achievements only limits humanity’s ability to make significant scientific

In an attempt to find out why there are very few women in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, Corbett .H et.al (2010) discovers that it was all about the attitudes the girl child has against the said disciplines, lack of mentors and the stereotypes in the society that hinders her from being effectively represented in these fields. He echoes the research by Victoria Woolf and Susan

Martin reveals cultural stereotyping are at a point that women are considered unequal in science. Marina Pavlova reiterates this topic by showing research and studies in the subject.

Sitting in my general biology class today, learning about amazing biological discoveries, my male teacher jokingly said “Did you know there are women in science?” then went on to joke about how these women who had just made an amazing biological discovery even had PhD’s. As he went on to talk about the amazing things these women did, he talked about the discovery like he had for the other ones made by men. If women can make biological discoveries like men can why are they looked at differently in their graduate fields of study. In this essay I will explore the gender issue in education through the lens of feminism by evidence shown in past decades and today. Education was primarily for men while women were not even allowed in some classrooms, while over time this has changed.