Topic Area
Science is the study wherein hypotheses are tested and logic is built upon facts and objectivity. With this in mind it would seem obvious that the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) fields should be the first fields of study to discard outdated stereotypes and embrace a new, largely untapped resource of professionals—women. However, research would indicate this is not the case, and that the situation is actually quite the opposite. It is often stated that women are underrepresented in STEM fields due to a “gender bias”, however, it is important to verify common knowledge statements such as this one to discover if they are true. Through the study of five peer reviewed, psychological studies, the conclusion that can
…show more content…
gender biases and stereotyping) and explicit sexism (e.g. outright discrimination on the bases of sex). In this paper, I look at the gap of women compared to men studying sciences and maths; as well, I look into the disparity between women achieving biological and environmental science degrees as opposed to women achieving maths and physics intensive degrees. Furthermore, conclusions are drawn on the receptiveness of women compared to men when confronted with information on this gender gap, and which sex possibly plays a bigger part in its propagation. These questions are explored through a variety of psychological journals covering women’s positions in STEM, the role of diversity in science, and what effects, if any, gender bias— implicit sexism— has on the representation of women in these …show more content…
In “Quality of Evidence Revealing Subtle Gender Biases in Science is in the Eye of the Beholder,” Handley et al. perform two double blind experiments to test the receptiveness of women compared to men, and STEM opposed to non-STEM faculty, on research revealing a gender bias in sciences. The paper concludes “[A] relative reluctance among men… To accept evidence of gender biases in STEM” (Handley et al. 13201). Robnett’s article “Gender Bias in STEM Fields: Variation in Prevalence and Links to STEM Self-Concept” finds that 61% (65) of the girls and women who took part of the study had experienced some sort of gender bias within their year of study. LaCosse et al. explore STEM stereotypic attribution bias (SSAB) in “STEM Stereotypic Attribution Bias among Women in an Unwelcoming Science Setting.” Published in Psychology of Women Quarterly, “Climate Perceptions and Identity Interference among Undergraduate Women in STEM: The Protective Role of Gender Identity,” studies “the link between identity interference and well-being” (Settles et al. 488). Final, Stirling’s “A general framework for analysing diversity in science, technology and society” outlines the importance of diversity within the fields of science and technology and how it may affect the scientific process. These five articles are rooted in prior research, experimentation, and data: the conclusions they draw
Miller, Alice H. Eagly, and Marcia C. Linn, it measured gender-science stereotype, “” (2). which is defined as associations that connects science with men more than women. This is believed to come from a lack of representation of women in the relative field. The study notes that putting women in science related fields in media, or having more women in the field, lessons that stereotype. They conducted the experiment by measuring 66 nations, which consisted of 350,000 participants’ explicit and implicit gender-science stereotypes. They found a relationship “between women's representation in science and national gender-science stereotype” (Eagly, Linn, Miller 8). The results of the study concluded that “implicit and explicit measures indicated strong association of science with man” (Eagly, Linn, Miller
Science, technology, engineering, and math are the four areas of study that make up STEM. These four areas all have one thing in common: they are all dominated by men. According to Lauren C. Williams, “men outnumber women 7 to 3 in tech jobs in New York City — and nationwide.”.7 Despite this, “women now earn more bachelor’s and master’s degrees than men”.6 However, “women are a minority”.2 Women are a minority in all STEM careers. The ratio of men to women in scientific fields has never been one to one. For some unknown reason very few women are choosing to become chemists, physicists, engineers, computer technicians, or mathematicians. There are many proposed theories for why women are extremely outnumbered in these scientific
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
Sexism is prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, commonly towards women, on the basis of their sex. Sexism is still present in today’s society, especially against women. There are many ways as to how people are sexist towards women. The three places that sexism against women is a big issue: the media, pop culture and the sports industry. Some people do not allow women the same opportunities that men have just because they are women. By creating sexism in these places, people are treating women unfairly and with disrespect. The stereotypes that are created by women paints a certain image of women that people believe to be true. The media is especially known for creating unrealistic images of women.
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.
Although the recent upward trends in the number of women in STEM fields are promising, they are not truly due to decreasing cultural stereotypes. Women receiving graduate degrees in engineering increased by 2 percent from 2000 to 2008, but this trend is not as hopeful as it may seem (Giges). This increase was mainly evident in communal fields like environmental or biomedical engineering (Giges). This is further evidence of the impact of cultural stereotypes and their influence on women’s career paths. Society’s expectation of women is that they serve as caring motherly figures and community-centered careers adhere
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
(Hill). The reasons behind why the numbers of women in STEM may be lower than men can be due to stereotype threat and implicit bias (Hill). A stereotype threat can occur during situations which a negative stereotype relates to evaluating performance (Hill). For example, if a female student starts thinking about the stereotype that women are not good at math, the emotional worry about this stereotype may affect her performance while taking a math test (Hill). Even if a person denies gender and science stereotypes they still can have them as unconscious beliefs, which are implicit biases (Hill). The "Implicit Association Tests (IATs)… indicate strong implicit association of male with science and female with arts… among both women and men of all races and ethnicities" (Hill). The stereotyping whether done unconsciously or consciously still affects the number of women pursuing an education or career in STEM. Recently, in my introduction to psychology II course I took and IAT on gender and science and the result suggests that I have a slight automatic association for Male with Science and Female with Liberal
Women remain an underrepresented minority in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classes and careers. A concerning disparity emerges between girls that express interest in a STEM field, those who major in them, those who continue into the field, and those who stay in their career. When the National Science Foundation conducted a survey of fourth graders, they found that 66% of girls said they liked
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
Traditionally, men take on the manufacturing, engineering, science occupations in society. Since the 1970’s women’s representation in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology, a group of subjects known as STEM, occupations has increased; but younger girls, under 40, remain underrepresented in these occupations (Census). Furthermore, within the group of few but strong females a part of STEM lies a huge discrepancy between employment of whites and Asians, compared to Africans, Hispanics, and native Americans. Although it is hard to identify the reason for the limited amount of girls in these subject areas, some specialist speculate lack of girls is due to stereotyping threat, stigmas of females lacking the intelligence to comprehend
In his article, “Does Gender Matter?”, Ben A. Barres writes about the apparent absence of women in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields. He starts out the article by informing the reader about a few of the hypotheses that aim to explain this difference in presence, hypotheses that Barres aims to disprove. Barres explains, and at a few points depicts with charts and graphs, the significance of the gap between the amount of white men in the STEM majors and fields of studies and the amount of women and minorities in these same areas. He tell the readers the misconceptions such as the idea that women are inferior in these fields are untrue, and the fact is that woman and minorities are discouraged from entering into these areas
Andresse St. Rose, Christianne Corbett, and Catherine Hill, are actively involved in the field of female studies in education and researchers for The American Association of University Women. In their 2010 book titled Why so Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, the first chapter is the book’s namesake and contains a wide depth of information, from statistics regarding a smaller female presence in STEM careers, differences across gender in students pursuing STEM related AP courses, and a comparison of the gender divide in earlier years with the present time.
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
To begin, we will be talking about a topic of worldwide intereset, Gender and Racial inequialities in STEM(science,technology,engineering and mathematics) fields in the EE.UU. The United States of America has a high gender gap and racial inequialities in STEM fields. Black People have a low degree completion rate and low representation in STEM fields; This makes it more complicated for them to join STEM fields. That is why I think that as a person we need to be aware of the injustices committed by the system and our society.