The Importance Of Gender Socialization

Moreover, all though “experiencing gender bias … Was mitigated among participants who also had a supportive network of STEM peers” (Robnett 73), due to the small number of women in STEM, this may be a hard task to accomplish (this will be further analyzed later in the study). A male-dominant environment can be difficult for women to permeate, as explained through the Social Identity Theory. This theory states that those in a place of privilege, such as being in the majority, will work to defend this privilege—in this context, this could be seen as men subconsciously seeing women in STEM as a threat. Gender bias in physics and math intensive fields puts women at a disadvantage, and furthermore these “Stereotypes can lead to biased evaluations against women in so-called gender-incongruous contexts, such as in STEM fields in which men have historically been dominant (engineering, physics, economics, computer science, geosciences, and mathematics)” (Ceci et al. 1). Therefore, as can be seen, women studying and working in physics and math-intensive fields face the additional challenges of stepping outside of their prescribed gender roles, permeating a male-dominant environment, and facing a possibly unwelcoming

Since 2001, the American school system has been using STEM. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), has become a major focal point in today’s schools in the United States. STEM originated from the idea that today’s employees lack the skills and talent that was needed in order to succeed in the 21st century economy (Cox, 2017). A major goal for STEM is to be able to expand the amount of students who decide to pursue advanced degrees and careers in STEM fields and to broaden the participation of women and minorities working in those specific fields (The National Academies Press, 2011).

The force of societal stereotypes is a large part of this gap. Instead of joining STEM careers, the most common careers among women are secretaries, nurses, and elementary and middle school teachers (Mandell). This truly illustrates that when well-rounded, talented women have the choice, they are inclined to delve into the field in which society expects them to belong. In this way, the stereotype of women not being involved in STEM is forcing less women to be involved in these fields. The deficiency of women in technical fields, despite their well-roundedness and ability, can be directly related to unyielding cultural stereotypes that stigmatize women in supposedly masculine fields.

In a speech in February 2013 President Barak Obama said, “One of the things that I really strongly believe in is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science, and engineering. We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in those fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.” It been three years since President Obama has made that statement and the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and math as known as STEM majors is still a big problem today. The STEM workforce is crucial to Americas global competitiveness and groundbreaking capability. The people who work in the STEM field make up nearly half of the United

Rosenthal, L., London, B., & Levy, S.R. (2011) investigated two theoretically- guided predictors to explain womens’ sense of belonging: perceived identity compatibility between being a woman and being in a STEM field, and perceived social support. Both factors led to a sense of belonging for women in the STEM majors, especially belonging to an all-women’s program called Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) (Rosenthal, L., London, B., & Levy, S.R., 2011). To increase and maintain perceived identity compatibility, it would be helpful to expose women to other successful women in STEM fields as role models. Also, enhancing and continuing social support in single-sex programs like WISE would also play a role in increasing the sense of belonging. This study brought to light a possible solution for increasing the

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

This report navigates the current state of STEM demographic in the country. It examines the reasons why there are less females undertaking STEM majors and gives recommendations on the problems. A brief history on STEM is outlined and the discussion follows with in depth analysis on the subject. STEM is a very critical education discipline with an importance in the economy of the country. Much as it is important, few students choose a career path in STEM. Although, there are more than 50% female students in Colleges and Universities, 12% take STEM related course. Why is this? This report is a compilation of empirical data collected in journals on the same subject explaining

Today’s college students have the opportunity and freedom to choose their major and their career path. Many factors influence the decision of a college student’s career paths including background, general interests, personal strengths, time commitment, and job outlook. Although many important decisions are made in college, one of the most important is the choice of major and career track. Out of hundreds of majors the science and engineering fields are under-represented by women. Although the numbers of women in science technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM, majors has been increasing in the past years, women still are in the minority in the STEM fields. In her study, Lona Whitmarsh

Nurses, counselors, teachers, wedding planners, interior decorators, and pediatricians are just some of the important positions women hold in the workforce, however, there has been a lack of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) related careers. Women tend to be drawn more towards careers dealing with secretarial work, health care and retail instead of engineering, chemistry, and technology. One of the biggest reason women do not enter these fields is due to cultural stereotypes. Another is due to the multitude of positions available to women that are not STEM related. Finally, women tend to look for jobs that are more flexible, hands on, financially rewarding and socially welcoming.

Whether we're with family, at school, with our peers, or on social media, we are always affected by gender role socialization. Gender role socialization is the process whereby individuals learn and internalize the attitudes, values, behavior, and the norms considered appropriate for males and females in our society. Considering that we are with our family everyday it makes sense that they have the most influence on us. Schools and peer groups typically go hand to hand when we’re younger, because we look for a sense of approval. Mass media is everywhere, as soon as you turn on your tv to when you get on your phone.

Jill Williams, director of Women in Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona says that “boys are encouraged to be interested in math and science-based activities to a greater degree than girls”

Introducing American students to STEM-related academic programs during K-12 and higher education can lay the foundation for a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. According to Hill, Corbett and Rose (2010), there are so few American people in the STEM workforce because there has been a drastic decline in the number of students who matriculate into STEM undergraduate degrees and who complete post-secondary education. Colleges and universities that provide a broader overview of the STEM fields in introductory courses, implement mentoring programs and effective policies for all faculty members, and hire more science and engineering faculty can increase female and male student recruitment and retention in STEM-related academic

By targeting the number of enrolled female students at community colleges, we can increase the number of women college graduates and thus address the issue of the gender gap in the workforce. This would help achieve the overall goal of facilitating creativity and innovation by increasing diversity in STEM occupations. Any initiatives and programs designed for this purpose should also take into account possible etiologies of this gender discrepancy. Some well-known contributing factors to the lower number of female community college students enrolled in STEM courses include negative gender stereotypes regarding aptitude towards mathematics and science, and a decreased number of female faculty members in college and universities.

There seems to be a stigma present in our society, that social sciences and humanities are not as hard and require less work than science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM, majors. In addition, women are still struggling to gain traction in STEM fields, and face gender bias quite frequently, as seen in the fact that women are only paid 77 cents for every dollar made by a man. We hypothesized that STEM majors would be rated as more academically competent than sociology majors. We also hypothesized that male students would be rated as more academically competent than female students. Finally, our combined hypothesis was that males would receive higher ratings of academic competency, overall, regardless of major. There was a total of 263 participants in this survey, 173 of them being female. Participants read paragraphs about either a sociology major named James or Jane, or an engineering major named James or Jane, and then were asked to rate how much they agreed with statements about the student, such as if the student was naturally smart. Participants were also asked how many hours they expected the student to spend studying a week. We found that the engineering students were rated higher for being naturally smart than the sociology students. Additionally, we found that the engineering students were expected to study more hours than the sociology students, and that a female undergraduate was expected to study more hours than a male undergraduate. These results

For years, women have been identified as the domestic gender, specifically for staying home to take care of the house, children, and husband. However, as women’s rights have begun to balance out with men’s, in the past century, women have been presented the opportunities to vote, enter the military, have more of a chance to get a job in the workforce, and many other opportunities to better themselves. Women getting jobs in the workforce, specifically science, math, engineering, and technology (STEM) majors, seemed to alarm people when it started becoming more popular. Over the past couple decades though, more women have begun to spark an interest in these fields, making it more acceptable today than it was a few decades ago.