Study Purpose: This study examines “the impact of occupation stereotypes and life goals related to career status, family, and helping others on career interests” (Barth 2015: 502).
Summary of Literature Review: Barth introduces the idea of the “leaky pipeline” by Goulden (2010), to explain the phenomenon that occurs when women don’t feel like they can choose a career in STEM field and the one’s who do choose to go into a STEM career dropout at a higher rate than men. Theoretical and/or conceptual approach: The first theory used is the Social Role Theory, which is “gender differences in behavior result in part from historical gender divisions in labor“ (Barth 2015: 503), for example males being the breadwinners, and females staying at home. The second theory referenced was the Role Congruity Theory, “when men and women internalize behavioral expectations based on gender roles, they also endorse roles that are consistent with their gender roles” (Bath 2015: 503). The last theory used was The Precluded Interest Theory is when a person is choosing a major or career they tend to compare themselves to the stereotypical person in that field. All of these theories describe how society and societal beliefs play a big role in women’s lives regarding what major or career path they choose.
Data: The participants were
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It has been traditionally to explain why women don’t attain STEM degrees as readily, until Ma (2011) recognized that Xie and Shauman found a better understanding of this underrepresentation of women with STEM degrees. Even with this new way of examining women’s involvement in STEM fields, there is still a lack of research don’t in the subfields of STEM classes. Further investigation into this topic will help give a better understanding as to “what drives women toward some STEM fields and keeps them away from others” (Ma,
Less and less girls are choosing career in STEM fields causing a growing gender gap as well as a decline in many STEM fields. Now one may wonder what is STEM? The acronym STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. (Lawerence-Turner Jody, 1) There are many reasons that few
In an excerpt titled "The Feminist Face of Antitechnology" from his 1981 book Blaming Technology, Samuel C. Florman explains why he thinks so few educated women in modern society are engineers. The excerpt was written shortly after he had visited an all-female liberal arts school, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, to convince a few young women to become engineers. His mission failed and his essay makes clear why he had such trouble.
"Why STEM Fields Still Don't Draw More Women." Chronicle Of Higher Education (2012): 3. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
STEM, also known as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, is the field that is advancing at a rapid rate. Within STEM, there are many occupations across the four fields. As years go on, more and more people start to have a growing interest in STEM, but this can’t be said for women. Women almost take up half of the workforce, but when it comes to STEM, women only take about 24%, almost half of the women aren’t participating in STEM. The numbers continue to get worse. From 2000 - 2009, the numbers have remained at a constant 24%. At this rate, employers could potentially see a decline in women’s representation, but there have been efforts to change this rate (Beede et al par. 6). This could mean disastrous problems in the world as more problems will arise and there’s nothing to be done because companies are non-diverse and
From what has been discussed in class and from what society has taught me, there are more men in science. According to my results, I heavily associate men with science and women with liberal arts. I find this conclusion to be true because I’ve had my own experiences with these results. As a young student, my math and science classes were much more competitive and, as a female, I had to be better than not only the
In the working environment, there is focus on females having unequal salaries with males or where women are lacking. Sociology Professor of University of British Columbia, Neil Guppy, reveals statistics that point out males are more likely to become engineers; “. . .men with lower mathematics test scores are significantly more likely to enter and graduate from STEM degree fields” (Guppy 248). Additionally, “. . . domestic labor continues to be segregated into blue and pink jobs, with women disproportionately doing routine housework and childcare, and men concentrating most on non-routine domestic labor (e.g. fixing things)” (Guppy 251). Feminists have every right to argue for female inequality in the working environment; if women are able to score higher mathematics scores than males then they should have every right to obtain a STEM degree and enter fields of engineering. If women are able to prove throughout the course of the feminist movement that they are strong, they should be able to perform careers when they fix things. However, the perspective this writing takes doesn’t address how males fall victim to such careers; males are discriminated into performing non-routine domestic labor because they are supposed to be the “breadwinners” or perform physically demanding jobs. Just as females are disproportionately forced into domestic labor, so are males in STEM and engineering fields; if
Gender roles are often used in our own society to tie people to a certain representation for what is socially acceptable. These roles perpetuate gender inequalities because they often make the female end of the spectrum worth less than the male. One example is equating masculinity with strength and femininity with weakness. Because of this sayings such as “You run like a girl” become negative. Gender roles create a system where people are set to a different standard based off gender alone. In trying to follow what is socially acceptable based on gender people are forced into roles. There is a lower percentage of women in science than men because girls are taught at a young age that being smart isn’t feminine. These roles harm boys too, teaching them that they have to be hyper-masculine to be considered
I was consistently asked if I was also going to be a nurse, teacher, or secretary which are stereotypically thought of as female careers. The jobs of engineer, scientist, or doctor were never mentioned. Interestingly enough, I became both a wife and mother, and established a career in education as a preschool teacher. Many institutions in our society are gendered (Gender, 2010). We “do gender” every day, all the time as it is an ongoing activity that cannot be avoided (Doing, 2011). Fortunately, there has been a great upheaval and revising of its traditional gender roles in the United States which is affecting gender roles in the home, the workplace, and school as more Americans are accepting and adapting to new definitions of gender roles (Gender,
“Sexist discrimination in STEM is such incredibly old news that it is a serious wonder we have not discovered the words “Women cannot be trusted to add” in cave paintings.”(JR Thorpe)
Luckily, there are organizations like the P.E.O. SIsterhood and Girls Who Code working to change that. Although P.E.O. is not specifically focused on getting women in STEM, their main purpose is getting women a college education, and their motto is “Women helping women reach for the stars.” They offer several scholarships and own Cottey College, a women’s college in Nevada, Missouri. P.E.O. is supporting women in any career, including a science based one. Girls Who Code, on the other hand, is focused on getting young girls interested in coding and computer sciences, a field that is growing rapidly.
Rising mostly through self-efficacy and outcome expectations, career-related interests foster educational and occupational choice goals (Bandura, 1997). Especially to the extent that they are clear, specific, strongly held, stated publicly, and supported by significant others, choice goals make it more likely that people will take actions to achieve their goals (Lent, Hackett, Brown, 1999). Their subsequent performance attainments provide valuable feedback that can strengthen or
Rosser, S. V. (1998). Applying feminist theories to women in science programs. Signs, 24, 71-200.
STEM is best known as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM for many years has been primarily seen as and stereotyped into a masculine work field. But as of recent years, while it expands, more and more women have been rising in these fields. However, there is still a tremendous gender gap between men and women in these fields and areas of work. The gender gap between men and women in STEM is alive and well. There is no denying that the gender gap between men and women in STEM is immense. But there instead are many sufficient reasons as to why there is such a huge gap between men and women within in fields. Some probable causes for the lack of women seen in these areas are biased towards women, unconscious bias girls receive
Carol B. Muller, “The Underrepresentation of Women in Engineering and Related Sciences: Pursuing Two Complementary Paths to Parity.” National Academies Press (US); Web. 2003.
Women have had quite a few hurdles to get over since the 1950's. In 1958 the proportion of women attending college in comparison with men was 35 percent. (Friedan,