Women in STEM
Overview
In 2015, only 24% of people in STEM jobs were women (as seen in the figure to the left). That is the same percentage of women in STEM as it was in 2009 (as seen in the figure below). Not only has the amount of women in STEM jobs not changed, the amount a woman in a STEM job makes compared to a man has decreased. In 2009, for every dollar a man made, a woman made 86 cents compared to in 2015 a woman made 84 cents to a man's dollar. That is a 14% wage gap to a 16% age gap in 8 years (Beede, 2009) (Noonan, 2017).
Ambivalent sexism
There are two aspects of Ambivalent sexism: benevolent and hostile. Men take a positive stance towards women through benevolent sexism by trying to protect them through protective paternalism. This involves believing women are sweet and virtuous which leads to treating women like they need extra help and are, therefore, unfit for STEM jobs. Though benevolent sexism doesn’t seem like a bad thing at first, it actually is known to “impair[e] women’s cognitive performance” (Kuchynka 2017).Hostile sexism, on the other hand, in professional environments, is less commonly seen because it is see as outright prejudice. This sort of negative sexism has been seen to have less long term impacts on women and their “angry reactions to hostile sexism tend to fade quickly” (Kuchynka 2017).
Between benevolent and hostile sexism, women are being discouraged from entering and staying in STEM fields.
How can we change this?
Women should be given the same opportunities as men are given. Both men and women are capable of entering STEM fields and being successful, therefore, all genders should be given equal opportunity to do so.
One way young women and girls are being encouraged to enter into STEM fields is through videos like this one from Microsoft letting girls know they can do anything boys can do.
Citations
Beede, D., Julian, T., Langdon, D., McKittrick, G., Khan, B., & Dorms, M. (2009). Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation. Retrieved February 12, 2018, from http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/womeninstemagaptoinnovation8311.pdf
Kuchynka, S., Salomon, K., Bosson, J., El-Hout, M., Kiebel, E., Cooperman, C., & Toomey, R. (2017, December 12). Hostile and Benevolent Sexism and College Women’s STEM Outcomes. Retrieved February 12, 2018, from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0361684317741889
Microsoft. (2015, March 8). YouTube[Girls Do Science]
Noonan, R. (2017, November 13). Women in STEM: 2017 Update. Retrieved February 12, 2018, from http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/women-in-stem-2017-update.pdf
Reuben, E., Sapienza, P., & Zingales, L. (2014, March). How stereotypes impair women’s careers in science. Retrieved February 10, 2018, from http://www.pnas.org/content/111/12/4403.full
Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from https://www.aauw.org/research/why-so-few/
I am kind of surprised that the amount of women in STEM has not increased more since 2009, considering the recent movement for more equality for women in the workplace. However, I would argue that the lack of women in STEM may not necessarily be because of sexism or women feeling like they don't belong (stereotypes); it may just be that women aren't as interested in math and technology as men are! I know that I definitely do not find spatial problems and engineering interesting at all. I would feel very comfortable pursuing a degree in one of those if it was of interest, but it's just not for me. Men may pursue STEM degrees because they prefer working with their hands, etc. and not all women enjoy that, so they chose different fields because of their personality.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that there aren't stereotypes I'm sure many women feel in regards to STEM, but there are other things to consider as well.
I was also very shocked at the lack of change in women in STEM from 2009 to 2015 since there are so many movements trying to get more women into STEM fields.
DeleteYou make a good point about a lot of women just not being interested in STEM, and I think that is a problem in its own. We should be trying to get more girls interested in STEM when they are younger or at least make sure they have the chance to decide whether or not they are interested in it. I could very well be that a lot of girls aren't interested in STEM because they were raised thinking men should be interested in STEM and women shouldn't.
It is really hard to determine whether we like the things we do because of nature or nurture. Even if we found gender-based differences in young kids, it would be hard to determine as we know that parents treat children differently even before birth. If you haven't done this recently, take a stroll through the baby department. What do you learn about what little girls and little boys are "supposed" to like? What traits tend to be listed on the onesies? What activities are represented on the shirts?
DeleteWell I normally would tend to agree that many women are uninterested in stem. Or I would come up with something like engineering can be a lot of welding and manual labor that some women may not be able to do. I think to myself I've seen women out work men in construction only to get paid less. I've seen women out hunt and fish men. I've been tackled on the football field by a girl every guy on our team was afraid to be hit by, and not because she was female. That being said women shouldn't be looked at as fragile or innocent and I do think many guys see women that way. How to change societies thoughts on this and many subjects is the question and has been for decades or centuries depending how you look at it, but I think an answer is coming.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely agree that there are things in engineering that would be difficult for women to do but definitely not impossible for women to do.
DeleteThere are many situations where women can out-do men but also situations where men can out-do a woman. They should be treated equally and given the same opportunities to prove themselves.
Have you come across any research on how to combat this issue? I wonder what the correct way is to encourage female interest into the STEM fields, in order to promote equality in those fields. Or is it because, like Cassie mentioned above, that women tend to not be as inclined to like those fields as much as men are. It would be interesting to research into the qualities and the reasons why people choose what jobs they do, and what prompts them to pursue that career. Do men like the sciences more from innate nature? Or is there some other environmental effect going on.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem is in part by nature and in part because of the society we live in. Most of the websites I read said we need to be encouraging women when they are young to go into STEM fields. That way girls can decide for themselves whether or not they want to pursue a career in STEM opposed to being suggested to by society that they should not enter a STEM field.
DeleteOne approach to evening the playing field is to do a better job of preparing women to be successful in STEM fields. We know that women often don't do as well on spatial tasks like mental rotation and navigation --- skills that are quite important to success in STEM fields (and classwork). However, there is evidence that the gender differences are driven by experience rather than innate abilities and can therefore be eliminated through training. Take a look at this article for more info. Note that Sorby is an MTU alumni and former faculty member! http://nautil.us/issue/32/space/men-are-better-at-maps-until-women-take-this-course
DeleteI find it very interesting that more women haven't become involved in STEM, although when looking at numbers Michigan Tech seems like a great example of men to women ratio. Over the years these numbers have began to increase, but are they increasing fast enough with the growing industries. I think eventually though the numbers will become more distributed, but first women have to be able to be seen as more than the nurturers and taken taken more seriously as leaders like men are.
ReplyDeleteI like the connection you made between the Tech ratio and the ratio of men to women in STEM fields because it truly is a great real life example. Also, I agree that women need to be seen less as only nurturers and more as whatever that particular woman wants to be seen as.
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ReplyDeleteGreat post! It definitely raises several good points, and for myself, one serious question. When does the line get crossed from what I typically always considered simply attempting to be courteous (such as offering to drive or pay for food on a date), to being considered sexist? Would you say that this is subjective and personal opinion? If so, it seems hard to define what type of behavior is considered what, especially when many "traditional" ideologies between sex roles (such as the man making the money, going into STEM, and the women staying home and raising kids) are definitely stifling and prejudice towards women, however, other behaviors (such as the date example) are "traditional" yet simply have the intentions of being courteous, or harbor the "protective" nature, which also brings that ideology up for question. Is it really saying that women are incapable of protecting themselves, or that men may feel protective of someone they care about? It seems like a line that is extremely sensitive to some, or simply viewed as courtesy by others, yet as you said, it may inadvertently lead to an impairment in women's cognitive performance. Do you have any ideas how to clear up how to ride the line of attempted courtesy and protective instinct without encroaching too much on being considered ambivalent sexism?
ReplyDeleteThis is a great (and tough) question. My personal opinion is that it comes down to what happens after the man offers to drive and pay on a date. If she says yes, does he assume that she owes something in return? Would he be ok if his date wanted to meet him there and split the bill? What if his date wanted to buy his dinner? If there are no expectations attached to paying for dinner, I wouldn't call that sexist. If he would be ok splitting the bill or being treated to dinner, I wouldn't call that sexist. As with all relationship issues, I'd say communication is key. What do others think? (As a side note: just because a man doesn't want a woman to feel like she owes, doesn't mean that she won't feel like she does....as you'll see in an upcoming chapter, the Norm of Reciprocity is strong and not something that is limited to dating. We have a strong tendency to feel indebted to people who give us things.This is why grocery stores tend to hand out "free samples!"
DeleteI agree that is a difficult question. Personally I think it comes down to the way a man pays for dinner. If he offers to pay in a polite way that isn't really sexist but if he just assumes it is his role as a man to pay for dinner, then he might be crossing the line into sexism. It's difficult to determine where the line is though because there are people who are more traditional and don't see anything wrong with wanting to pay for dinner.
DeleteIt is really surprising to me that the amount of women in STEM has remained almost unchanged since 2009, especially with the recent increased emphasis on gender equality. Furthermore, the fact that men still continue to make more in STEM fields is discouraging. Perhaps, women do not want to enter a STEM field because they are discouraged by the fact that men tend to make more money than women in STEM careers.
ReplyDeleteThe push for more women in STEM seemed to really erupt a few years ago. The video in this post is from March of 2015, making it just under three years old. One of the reasons that the number of women in STEM hasn’t really increased might in part be due to the fact that the age range of girls that videos like these target just aren’t out of school yet. The American education system (K-12) typically lasts from the time you are around age 5-6 up until around age 18, and higher education like college lasts until you are even older. It may take some time before we see more women in STEM simply because they aren’t old enough yet to pursue the appropriate education or training that the field demands.
ReplyDeleteThe statistic you open your blog with really surprised me, I thought for sure more women were going into STEM fields. I was also surprised that only 24% of the STEM field is made up of women. However, I found this topic easy to relate to. Throughout my college career as a computer science major, I have noticed that benevolent sexism is common pretty much wherever I go. I've had guys tell me the only reason I got an internship was because I'm a girl at Tech, completely ignoring the fact that I'm just as qualified and smart as they are. I often get the comment "wow, so you're one of two girls in the CS major!" when I mention my field of study. While most of it seems harmless, there are negative connotation related to these comments. I would also like to mention, most people don't make sexist comments, but there's always a few people who can't hold back their opinions. I think this is a great topic to post about and bring awareness to!
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