Stereotypes In STEM Careers

Studies show that retention of females in science, technology, engineering, and math (collectively, “STEM”) careers is consistently lower than that of their male counterparts. Between 2001 and 2009, the percentage of female recipients of bachelor degrees in engineering stagnated at a mere 18.1-20.9% (Jagacinski, 2013). A staggeringly large number of women switch majors by their junior year of college, and do not pursue their STEM-related degree to completion. Why is this? How can such a significant difference exist between the retention of men and women in the same field? Women face several obstacles that their male counterparts never have to deal with.

Stereotypes play a very large role in deterring women from STEM careers. From the time they are young, girls learn from their peers, from their teachers, and perhaps most tragically, from their parents, that math and science are for boys. Even in the most subtle of ways, girls are taught that they should pursue other goals.

In

2010, Mattel, the company behind the popular Barbie Doll series, released a picture book, Barbie: I can Be a Computer Engineer. Although the title sounds promising, the book only serves to forward the idea that women are incapable of dealing with technology, and that the only way they can survive in a technology-rich environment is by relying on men. Barbie starts work on a computer game, but later reveals that she’s only doing the design work. She says she’ll have to hand it off to her male friends to make it a “real game”. Later, a virus causes her computer to crash, but not before she accidentally transfers it via an infected USB drive to a friend’s computer too. Throughout the course of the book, she relies on the aforementioned male friends to do the programming for her game. After widespread criticism triggered by a blogger 4 years after the publishing of the book, Mattel apologized for the content (Kooser, 2014). Mattel, unfortunately, seems to have a history of perpetuating stereotypes of women in STEM careers. The company, almost twenty years earlier, was responsible for a subtly sexist phrase in one of their talking dolls. One of the 270 phrases it was programmed to say was, “Math class is tough” (New York Times, 1992). This seemingly tame phrase became a subject of controversy. Why would a doll intended to be a role-model for girls everywhere be made to say she was bad at math? Why wouldn’t she be programmed to say she was good at math? As a product primarily marketed to girls, this Barbie once again helped to enforce the convention that women should stay away from STEM. Mattel’s accidental sexism is just an example of a wide-spread and deeply-rooted idea of what women supposedly should and should not do with their lives.

Stereotypes have even deeper consequences in college.

Because STEM fields are male-dominated, males often, albeit subconsciously, feel threatened by intelligent, capable females, and will try to prove their superiority to her in order to remain respected within their circles. This often means the female is either isolated, ignored, or at the very least, talked down to somewhat, even though she is just as capable as her male peers. She then has two options, neither of which is ideal: to remain confident in her abilities and assertive with her ideas, or to retreat, and become socially submissive among her group. All too often, the latter occurs, and as such, males are much more often to take leadership of groups, activities, and, ultimately, the job market. Plus, because of the subconscious expectation of women to be socially submissive among men, when a woman is assertive and confident, it is unexpected, and as such, comes across as bossiness rather than

intelligence.

Yet another deterrent for women in STEM is their own preconceived notions about STEM. Many women think that STEM fields are simply not well suited for women, because they have bought into the stereotype that women are unskilled at math and science. Others believe that there are no women in these fields, making it a lonely place for them. This is possibly one of the biggest turn-offs for women in STEM. Because it is a male-dominated field, some women shy away from it, making it yet more male-dominated. Cheryan et. al (2009) conducted a study which indicated that women react negatively to physical environments that are stereotypically male. Objects like video game controllers, sci-fi posters and books, and other common symbols of masculinity tend to subconsciously threaten a woman’s sense of self. This can have an effect on female participation in STEM related fields, as “masculine” objects are fairly commonplace in these kinds of environments. Women in this study reacted much more positively to gender-neutral physical environments.

Still others believe that STEM fields are battlegrounds, where one must constantly prove one’s intelligence to keep ahead. And, because of the submissive nature that many women have grown to project during college to avoid ridicule, this is sometimes a very intimidating thought.