Outline
In 1944 the German chemist Otto Hahn was awarded a Noble Prize for his work on nuclear fission - the process that lies at the heart of nuclear bombs and power stations. The Austrian physicist Lise Meitner, who was the official leader of Hahn's team, and who also worked out the theoretical explanation of their experimental discoveries, was not even mentioned in the Noble committee's announcement. (Wertheim)
Thirteen years later the Chinese-American particle physicist Chien-Shiung Wu would likewise be left out when the Nobel committee made its announcements.
Likewise English astronomer Jocelyn Bell, who discovered pulsars, would also be denied a share in the Nobel that went only to her (male) supervisor.
Reports in the past showed that the highest percentages of women among students awarded a doctorate in physics are 20 to 27 percent ( India, Australia, Poland and France) and the lowest percentages are 8-9 percent (Japan, South Korea, Netherlands and Germany).
An international survey of around 900 women physicists in more than 50 countries found that the factor most frequently contributing to their success was encouragement from their families (parents and husbands). Also mentioned were the support of high school teachers, advisors, and professors; their own determination, will power and hard work; and participation in important international projects.
The outcome of the survey showed somecultural differences from the countries represented, with family issues such as marriage and child care important factors in some countries, and less so in others. Women in developing countries are more likely than women in developed countries to be married (four out of five in the first case, compared to two out of three in the second). (Barbosa)
The problems that the women surveyed mentioned were problems with balancing family and career and defeating the commonly encountered bias that women cannot do physics. The women who responded shared a strong passion for physics, and three out of four said that they would choose physics again, despite any difficulties or barriers they had encountered.
A report from Japan stated that it takes women an average of ten years more to advance to the rank of professor than their male colleagues.
A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found women professors consistently had less laboratory and office space and were paid less than their male colleagues.
"As of 1996, Princeton physics department had still not given tenure to a physicist not sporting the penile appendage" (Wertheim).
What We Did to Get Where We Are:
...roblems of integration. If the science world takes advantage of undiscovered female talent, science as a whole will benefit greatly. For example, the original group of ENIAC programmers consisted of 6 women. In 1946, these women helped to develop the first operating stored-program computer.6 If female talent such as this goes to waste because of social neglect, the science world will never know what possible discoveries that could have been made with the help of women. If Dr. Djerassi is accurate with his examples of discrimination, the science world should take note of these problems and attempt to solve them.
My research question is: what effects do real and perceived sexism have on women in academia? There are enormous disparities between the number of women that receive PhDs and the number of women that are tenured professors. I believe that gender roles within families, and employer’s, perceptions of mothers directly or indirectly affect women’s upward mobility in all professions. Through my qualitative and statistical analysis I will explore the institutionalized sexism in academia as well as how women’s self-perceptions affect their upward mobility. I ultimately intend to explore what portion of the sexism in academia is real or perceived; real sexism being direct and tangible disadvantages to women, and perceived sexism being disadvantages to women based on self-devaluing. In my opinion, sexism has been part of our society for so long that it is instill in women at an early age that they will not and cannot have the same mobility as men. This plays a major role in women’s lack of upward mobility in academia and other professions.
In brief, this article presents a view that women in engineering must enter the field as “conceptual men”. This means that in order to succeed in a male dominated field, women must essentially “become like men”. The article goes on to interview women in the engineering field. In particular, Ranson (2005) interviews women with and without children. This provides differing views of how women in engineering with and without children in engineering have approached their jobs.
Moreover even if a woman gets a job concerning science she will still be paid less than a man in the exact same position, which is known as the wage gap. Despite several studies about the subject men will often declare the wage gap a myth, invented by angry feminist.
Why are most brain surgeons and CEO's male? Why are most secretaries and nurses female? Why not female surgeons and male nurses? These are simple and frequent questions that can be answered by most Sociologist and Theorists. Sociologists and Theorists equate this type of job inequality phenomenon with occupational sex segregation. Sex segregation in the workplace is one of the most visible signs of inequality in the labor market. In almost every work setting, it is rare to see men and women working at the same job. When they do, they usually perform different tasks, with unequal levels of responsibility and authority. Even when job tasks are virtually identical, it is not uncommon to find men and women allocated to distinct job classifications within an organization. The two theoretical perspectives that I will discuss in order to explain this sex segregation are neo-classical and human capital theories, and institutional and labor market segmentation theories.
There has been a study assessing the career preference of men and women, the study found that men are more attracted towards masculine job while women show no preference. This study also shows that men are more sensitive to gender stereotyping (Barth & Guadagno & Rice & Eno & Minney, 2015). The results of this study supports that men experience heavier social pressure and expectations to conform to society’s standards of masculinity. In addition, Current outcomes of studies highlights the underrepresentation of women in the field of STEM. Interestingly, while many women show interest in this field, only few would consider pursuing this option (Beede et al. 2011). This may be caused by women’s tendency to prioritize factors such as marriage, family, and helping others in choosing a career option, as jobs in the field of STEM are less accommodating to employees that are family oriented (Ceci et al. 2009). Expected themes seem to manifest in these data. There is a trend showing that both men and women’s career choice are somehow influenced by gender expectations and roles.
University of Alabama, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 4,000 Years of Women in Science. Dec. 2002 2 Nov. 2003 http://crux.astr.ua.edu/4000WS/newintro.html.
Women are capable of doing the same jobs that men do. Many women do work in higher positioned jobs that are seen more as jobs for men, but just because they’re higher up doesn’t mean they get paid the same as the men doing their exact job. “High-achieving women are paid less than men even when they have similar levels of experience and are in the same fields,” (Bloomberg Businessweek). This means that women who have been doing the same job for the same amount of time as a man, earn less than him. Even a woman who was completely
Cole wants her readers to understand that everyone should have the right to learn this magnificent tool. K.C. Cole believes women did not have the same opportunities as men on the subject that they want to pursue in. She didn 't realize what an odd creature a woman interested in physics was until she saw a University’s conference, out of several hundred young students of physics and engineering in the room, less than a handful were women. This is especially true in the current society, where some occupation are considered women only, and some are men only. As said in her essay, “women are simply made to feel out of place in science. Her conclusion was supported by a Ford Foundation study by Lynn H. Fox on the problems of women in mathematics. When students were asked to choose among six reasons accounting for girls ' lack of interest in math, the girls rated this statement second - Men do not want girls in the mathematical occupations.” The author K.C. Cole uses historical allusion from another person to help support her idea of the exclusion of women in the science field. As we all can imagine, this did not only happen to K.C Cole. As she described in her essay, some of her friends and people she knows about also face challenges on this field, she remembers that, “A friend of mine remembers winning a Bronx Wide mathematics competition in the second grade. Her friends both boys and girls warned her that
When most people think of the Scientific Revolution, they think of scientists such as Galileo, Newton, Brahe, and Boyle. However, many people do not even know about the many women who played a vital role in the scientific advancements of this period. Even when these women were alive, most of society either ignored them or publicly disapproved their unladylike behavior. Because of this, these women were often forgotten from history, and very little is known about the majority of them. Although their names rarely appear in history books, the female scientists of the Scientific Revolution still impacted the world of science in several ways. In fact, all of the scientists listed above had a woman playing an influential role assisting them in their research. However, assisting men in their studies was not the only role open to women; several women performed experimentation and research on their own, or advancing science in some other way, even though the society of the time looked down upon and even resisted their studies.
Smith, Michelle R. “Giving Female Scientists Their Due.” Philly.com. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
Women address the problem of being underrepresented in academic fields such as engineering, because there is an overweight of men – should men say that there is too many nurses or kindergarten teachers? They only want the equality because the academic fields is something that the men have for themselves.
The female status is overall smaller than males in education institutions and workplace environments. This is a result of the stereotypes and gendered norms that are socially constructed. This paper will argue that although societies around the world continue to evolve and develop, the under representation of women in the various fields of science and engineering is becoming more of a controversial issue facing a variety of standpoints all around the world. This will be examined through the discussion on the challenges and reasons for underrepresentation. This paper will further explore the cross-cultural differences in the status of women emphasizing on how the status of women in science may vary from culture to culture due to their norms and values, along with how the social culture of mass media also has an impact. Finally, this paper will then demonstrate the steps that can be taken within any society in order to change and prevent the challenges that women are faced with in the fields of science and
...discussions. Another reason for this is that there are more male professors in colleges and universities and it is even more difficult to find women professors at the most prestigious universities.
...ld. Women are most often stereotyped as only being nurses or other lower-end health professionals. There is a huge difference between the percent of males and the percent of females when it comes to more advanced medical fields. A study conducted by Reed and Fischer found that women are not promoted at the same rate as men in medical fields. They feel that women are under-represented in higher medical positions. The CEJA found that there is a large difference in salaries between men and women. Studies show that the average female physician earns 34 percent less than her male counterpart. Female physicians are more likely to earn a relatively low income and are less likely to gain a relatively higher income. For example, while 19 percent of female physicians earned less than $60,000, only 7 percent of male physicians earned less than that same amount (CEJA, 1994).