Biological, Social, and Organizational Components of Success for Women in Academic Science and Engineering Report of a Workshop (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Section 2--Selected Workshop Papers
Section 2--Selected Workshop Papers
Pages 97-174
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Williams Long Time No See: Why Are There Still So Few Women in Academic Science and Engineering? Yu Xie Social Influences on Science and Engineering Career Decisions 97
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Presence of children, especially young chil dren, significantly disadvantages women while having no impact on men in obtaining tenure track jobs. The research also finds no significant gender differences in the probability of obtaining tenure in life science, physical science, and engineering.
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Simply comparing salaries of male and female academic scientists without taking into consideration these factors could overstate the gender salary gap. Disentangling the causes of gender disparities in employment outcomes requires an in-depth examination of the data.
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Thus, the research compares employment outcomes across academic fields in order to ascertain the relative status of women in academic science and social science. Finally, employment outcomes are interrelated.
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I use these data to create rough measures of productivity for each year following the doctorate.1 Academics in the life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, and social science are included in the analysis. Life science includes biological sciences and agriculture and food science.
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examine gender differences in hiring by evaluating whether women in science are more or less likely than men to get tenure track jobs within five years of receiving their doctorate. Women and men who leave academia immediately following the doctorate are dropped from the sample.
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Numbers that are underlined are statistically significant at the 5% level. The first bar in Figure 2-4 shows that women are between 4 to 6% less likely than men to have tenure-track jobs in all science fields combined, social science, and life science.
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using 1973-2001 Survey of Doctorate Recipients. 5 0 2.2 3.9 -1.4 Tenured -5 -2.8 -10 -8.1 -8.4 Female -15 Probability -20 -21 -25 Science Social Life Physical Engineering Humanities Economics Science X Science Science FIGURE 2-4 Gender differences in promotion to tenure 10 years past PhD.
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The demand for doctors is much higher than the demand for academic scientists, and this demand results in more women practicing medicine. It follows that the lack of academic jobs may be contributing to women's underrepresentation in academic science.
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If men are more likely to work at top-ranked research universities, the gender salary gap will be larger. Salary differences may also result from dif
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The first bar in Figure 2-5 shows the average gender salary gap for all tenure-track and tenured faculty combined in science, social science, life science, physical science, engineering, and humanities. The salary gap ranges from a low of 11% in the humanities2 to a high of 21% in engineering.
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Male salaries are reduced more than female salaries for each additional year of job tenure. Thus, neither monopsony models nor the loyal servant hypothesis provide an adequate explanation of the gender salary gap in science.
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Whereas this may explain part of the salary gap for lower ranks, it is difficult to argue that women full professors of science are not well suited to academic science. Although productivity, children, and economic models do not provide an adequate explanation for the gender salary gap, there are other variables that are associated with the gender gap.
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These questions include the following: · Information on publications and citations · Dollar amount and duration of grant awards · Laboratory size · Numbers of graduate students and post-doctoral students advised. This series of questions would allow researchers to determine whether gender differences in resource allocation and productivity contribute to the gender salary gap.
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. Why women earn less: Economic explanations for the gender salary gap in science.
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Males excel at visuospatial transformations, especially mental rotation, science achievement, mathematics tests that are not tied to a specified curriculum (possibly due to use of novel visuospatial rep resentations and transformations) , and males are more variable on many cognitive tests.
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Summers eliminated the third hypothesis quite simply by concluding that there could not be discrimination against women in the process of searching and hiring professors because discrimination would have to occur on every campus in the United States. If there were one or even a few campuses that did not discriminate against women scientists, then these campuses would have many outstanding women at the level of full professor who had been discriminated against at the other campuses; since there are no such campuses, there could not have been discrimination in the hiring or promotion process.
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? Clearly women have the cognitive ability to learn and succeed in math and science, although there are sex differences in the fields of sciences in which they are selecting.
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It is the quintessential "biological" organ, yet, it is also shaped extensively by experience. There are many sex differences in the architecture of the brain, but it cannot be assumed that differences in female and male brains result solely from genetic or hormonal action.
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found on some cognitive tasks, these differences are not immutable or inevitable and "biological" variables are developed in environments that are more or less favorable to their development and maintenance. Sex Differences in Cognitive Performance In understanding sex differences in cognitive performance, Hyde's (2005)
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Male: · Visuospatial transformations, especially mental rotation. This is a well-replicated and large effect that has not declined in over 30 years (between 0.9 to 1.0 standard deviations; Halpern & Collaer, 2005; Mas ters & Sanders, 1993; Nordvik & Amponsah, 1998)
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· More variable in cognitive performance. There are more males at both the high and low ends of many cognitive performance distributions.
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In looking over this abbreviated list of areas in which there are cognitive sex differences, one point should be evident -- everyone except the profoundly retarded can improve in these cognitive areas with appropriate education, which is why we have schools. We really do not know if we could close, reverse, or increase any or all of the average differences between males and females with learning experiences, "selective breeding" (which was not discussed)
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. The sex differences in math achievement at 8th grade are not as impressive on this assessment as it is on more advanced measures, but as indicated earlier, the size of the sex difference depends on what is assessed and it grows with more select samples.
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DM Ireland Japan Korea Latvia Lithuania DM Netherlands New Zealand Norway Portugal Russian Federation Singapore DM Slovak Rep. DM Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom DM DM England DM Scotland DM United States 40 20 1 0 1 20 40 40 20 1 0 1 20 40 40 20 1 0 1 20 40 Gender Difference Significantly Different Gender Difference not Significantly Different DM Data Missing FIGURE 2-8 Gender differences in achievement: 15 year old*
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Using a basic framework that was derived from the empirical literature on sex differences, Halpern (2000) proposed that females, in general, have faster access to information in episodic memory, to word knowledge and phonetic information; greater language fluency and implicit use of grammatical rules (in writing)
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This is one example where the study of sex differences can move us toward a better understanding of the cognitive processes people use and new ways to improve strategies for math problem solving. Noncognitive Variables There are many context variables that influence cognitive performance.
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The inflexibility of the tenure system to accommodate to the reality of women's lives is the more likely and proximal cause of the underrepresentation of women in academic science, which in addition to the other requirements in the academy, includes long hours in the laboratory. Thus, although there are sex differences in cognitive performance on many tests, and despite the many unanswered and important questions about the interplay of social, assessment, and biological variables on cognitive performance, the most immediate route to helping talented women gain entry and move through career in science and mathematics is by recognizing the family and other caretaking demands that most usually fall on women.
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. Is the gender difference in mental rotation disappearing?
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This paper reviews these meta-analyses and other related research, concluding that gender differences in these abili ties are generally small. Success in engineering and the physical sciences requires many abilities (Handelsman et al., 2005)
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That is, d measures how far apart the male and female means are, in standardized units. In meta-analysis, the effect sizes computed from all individual studies are then averaged to obtain an overall effect size reflecting the magnitude of gender differences across all studies.
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This gender difference in problem solving favoring males deserves attention because problem solving is essential to success in occupations in engineering and the physical sciences. Perhaps the best explanation for this gender difference, in TABLE 2-1 The Magnitude of Gender Differences in Mathematics Performance as a Function of Age and Cognitive Level of the Test Cognitive Level Age group Computation Concepts Problem solving 5-10 0.20 0.02 0.00 11-14 0.22 0.06 0.02 15-18 0.00 0.07 0.29 19-25 NA NA 0.32 SOURCE: Hyde et al.
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One found that the magnitude of gender differences varied substantially across the different types of spatial performance: d = 0.13 for spatial visualization, 0.44 for spatial perception, and 0.73 for mental rotation, all effects favoring males (Linn and Peterson, 1985)
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An important point is that, although laboratory experiences do not improve the physical science achievement of boys, they do improve the achievement of girls, thereby helping to close the gender gap in achievement in the physical sciences (Burkam, Lee, and Smerdon, 1997; Lee and Burkam, 1996)
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The gender gap in mathematics course taking has narrowed over the last decade, so that by 1998 girls were as likely as boys to have taken advanced mathematics courses, including AP/IB calculus (National Science Foundation, 2005)
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, we can see that the effect sizes more consistently favor males and are somewhat larger, although not large for any nation. When the results are broken down by science, gender differences are smaller in life sciences knowledge (0.11 and 0.20 at ages 9 and 13, respectively, averaged over all countries)
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There are a few exceptions of large differences, but the big picture is one of gender similarities. Implications: How Can We Close the Gender Gap in Engineering and the Physical Sciences?
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Focusing on the gender difference in spatial skill, we need to institute a spatial learning curriculum in the schools. Girls are seriously disadvan taged by its absence.
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. Sex differences in mental test scores, variability, and numbers of high-scoring individuals.
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Sue V Rosser Ivan Allen School of Liberal Arts and Technology Georgia Institute of Technology Abstract Faced with a severe shortage of scientists and engineers, exacer bated by changes in immigration policies in the wake of 9/11, the United States has renewed its efforts to diversify the scientific and technologi cal workforce, including attracting and retaining women in academic science and engineering.
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, thus acknowledging that institutional barriers have prevented women scientists and engineers from having a level playing field and that science and engineering might need to change to accommodate women. Almost simultaneously, the National Science Foundation (NSF)
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Although a few tenured full professors, faculty from four-year institutions, and/or nontenure track individuals received awards, the vast majority of POWRE awardees were untenured assistant professors in tenure track positions at research universities. All POWRE new grant awardees were sent questionnaires via e-mail that included the question "What are the most significant issues/challenges/opportunities facing women scientists today as they plan their careers?
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141 we in D into data, 7.9% 4.8% 2000 32.4% 14.5% descending placed the category in were with present 9.8% 8.2% 5.8% 1999 35.0% to )
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Category C (Responses 2, 6, 16) includes issues men and women scientists and engineers face in the current environment of tight resources that may pose particular difficulties for women because of their low numbers or their balancing act between career and family.
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This can be beneficial, as recog nition of your research by your peers is important for gaining tenure; it can also add to the already large amount of pressure on new faculty." (2000 respondent 70) Category C: Issues Faced by Men and Women Scientists and Engineers in the Current Environment of Tight Resources, Which May Pose Particular Difficulties for Women · "I have noticed some problems in particular institutions I have visited (or worked at)
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See Figures 2-10, 2-11A, and 2-11B. Family friendly policies and practices To facilitate the balancing of career and family, perceived overwhelmingly by women scientists and engineers, particularly those of younger ages, as the major issues (Rosser, 2004)
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* Regent's Professorships are a rare, distinguished promotion above the level of full professor, which are open to both men and women faculty at the research institutions in the University System of Georgia.
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146 COMPONENTS OF SUCCESS FOR WOMEN IN ACADEMIC SCIENCE & ENGINEERING A 160 Regent's Professor 140 1 1 Full Professor 120 3 0/2 1 1/2 Assistant Professor 2 0/0 100 1 1/0 1 0/2 Professors 4 3 Associate Professor 3 80 3 6 Female 3 0/2 4 0/5 Up: Promotions of 60 3 1/2 6 0/0 2 0/2 3 6 In: Hires 40 Number 4 7 6 6 0/1 11 1/5 Out: Retirements/ 20 4 0/1 9 0/4 11 1/1 Resignations Terminations 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Academic Year B 800 Regent's Professor 700 1 1 2 Full Professor 2 600 2 17 17/5 22 12/6 6 11/5 Assistant Professor 500 9 7/8 11 13/4 Professors Associate Professor 400 Male of 12 19 18 10 18 300 Up: Promotions 8 2/3 9 5/8 12 7/6 14 1/8 6 2/3 Number 200 In: Hires 10 15 15 15 17 100 38 0/10 32 1/10 31 0/8 32 0/8 15 0/6 Out: Retirements/ 0 Resignations 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Terminations Academic Year FIGURE 2-11 Georgia Institute of Technology faculty flux charts. A: Female Faculty; B: Male Faculty
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The ADVANCE program at the University of Michigan worked with an interactive theater program that portrays typical academic situations and engages academic audiences in discussion around interpersonal behaviors affecting these issues. The University of Washington has developed a National UW ADVANCE Summer Leadership Workshop for Department Chairs.10 Training of tenure and promotion committees To minimize gender, racial, and other biases in promotion and tenure, the Provost at Georgia Tech, who also serves as Principal Investigator on its ADVANCE grant, appointed a Promotion and Tenure ADVANCE Committee (PTAC)
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. Key barriers for academic institutions seeking to retain women scientists and engineers: Family-unfriendly policies, low numbers, stereotypes, and harassment.
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. The first is the growing literature in experimental social psychology on stereotyping and cognitive bias, which shows that many of the pat terns that create a "built-in headwinds" for women in the sciences and engineering reflect documented patterns of gender bias (Griggs v.
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. Thus schedule alone goes a long way towards explaining why there are so few women in academic science and engineering (the "STEM disciplines")
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WorkLife Law has identified over 600 cases involving family responsibilities discrimination, a 400% increase in the last decade 4The chilly climate literature actually does better than the "climate" literature in describing the specific patterns that create problems for women. 5WorkLife Law is housed at UC Hastings College of the Law; http://www.worklifelaw.org.
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The traditional way of proving discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is by comparing the experience of a woman plaintiff to the experience of a "comparator": a similarly situated man.
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as well as references to the experimental social psychology literature.7 Trying twice as hard to achieve half as much: Patterns that make it more difficult for women to be perceived as competent 1. Women are judged on their accomplishments; men on their potential (Williams, 2003, pp.
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. Single-mindedness, as noted above, is a polite way of describing the requirement that, to be successful, a scientist must either eschew family life or enjoy a flow of domestic services from a spouse that is common among men but 8The case cited contains only the characterizations of Weinstock, a woman professor of chemistry; the others are added to highlight how a similarly situated man might be described.
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When a woman stands up for herself or women's rights and is characterized as "shrill," "a feminazi," or a "fanatical feminist," this is evidence of gender bias. (Note that we no longer hear claims that African-Americans "have it coming" if they are "too uppity": Women, too, should be able to stand up for their group without being demonized.)
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228, 250 (1989) , christened this a "Catch-22" and treated it as potentially illegal gender discrimination.
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7. Part-time work is an independent trigger for negative competence assumptions.
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· A female professor claimed that her pregnancy, which has caused her to switch to part-time tenure track (among other things) led her institution to hold her to a higher standard than similarly situated males (AAUW, 2004, p.
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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Sexual harassment (42 USC § 2000e-2) Quid pro quo (your body or your job)
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. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Constructive discharge Constructive discharge occurs when an employer imposes intolerable working conditions stemming from unlawful discrimination or harassment that would compel a reasonable person to quit (Center for WorkLife Law, 2006, pp.
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2003) , refused to apply a categorical rule excluding a part-time chemist from being compared to full-time chemists, in a ruling that suggests that professors on part-time tenure track should be paid the proportion of their salary equal to the proportion of a full-time schedule they work (for example, 75% pay for a 75% workload)
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. Conclusion This article introduces a very different language for talking about gender bias in the STEM disciplines than the traditional metaphors of the "chilly climate" or the "academic culture" (Sandler, et al., 1996; Stanford, 1993; Mervis, 2002; Trower and Chait, 2002)
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. Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII.
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Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 33:579-601. LH Krieger (1995)
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. The social psychology of stereotyping: Using social science to litigate gender discrimination cases and defang the "cluelessness" defense.
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Social Psychology Quarterly 57:150-159. Zahorick v.
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These analyses led us to conclude that women's severe underrepresentation in science and engineering is an extremely complex social phenomenon that defies any attempt at simplistic explanations. Due to the complex and multi-faceted nature of women scientists' career processes and outcomes, especially how these processes and outcomes affect, and are affected by, other life course events such as marriage and childbearing, we were uncomfortable recommending concrete policy interventions intended to increase women's representation in science and engineering No single explanation or hypothesis testing should or could substitute for the richness of the empirical results from these analyses, though we did consider and reject several widely accepted hypotheses, as the following discussion shows.
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168 10: 9: gender: scientists/ Census Years 1969,- Sources: intersection SSE revisited research Sources: 1973,- 1988,- 1993- immigration immigrant engineers PUMS, Chapter and 1990 The of women Data Career Chapter The productivity ACE NSPF NSPF puzzle Data Carnegie PhD- in 8: men and Post and in of 7: men and Source: Census and women force of PUMS, PUMS MS- women Sources: 1990- Chapter Geographic science engineering SSE mobility and 1990 Data Chapter labor science engineering 1960 Post profiles and Demographic Data Census sources. data and years 6: Degree 2 choice + Master's differences S/E Source: attainment in NES S/E Chapter career Master's examined, Degree in after a Data Gender of outcomes years 5: the and 2 choice B&B + differences degree Sources: Bachelor's science Chapter Beyond career after attainment NES, S/E baccalaureate: Degree in Data gender processes, + in a of career 4: degree diploma Source: years differences course, 6 HSBSo Chapter attainment school life nder Data the Bachelor's science/engineering High Ge the an cohort 3: in of major high 12 seniors 7 2: Source: science Synthetic HSBSr, Gender NELS LSAY1, NELS differences Chapter college and Sources: among school Data 72,- differences expectation S/E 2-12 Grades Chapter achievement math Data Gender NLS HSBSo, LSAY2, in FIGURE
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, for the hypothesis that there is no mean difference between males and females. TABLE 2-6 Female-to-Male Ratio of the Odds of Achieving in the Top 5% of the Distribution of Math Achievement Test Scores Among High School Seniors by Cohort School Cohort Achievement Ratio Data Source 1960 0.45*
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170 : status, Degree 0.004 0.008 Field 0.004 0.039 S/E Pathway 1986-1988 in Reentry: by Complete females: males: Persistence: females: males: Educational Bachelor's 0.603 0.566 0.063 0.046 , females: males: status females: males: Major 1984 College S/E in Educational College in 0.865 0.919 College baccalaureate. or in Major S/E Not , females: males: an to Non-S/E status exit: 0.821 0.541 1982 of Major College pathways Fall in Prob.
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Thus, even in the earlier decades, the observed sex differences in productivity can be explained once these relevant attributes are controlled for. Family Life and Women Scientists' Careers A common theme is the importance of considering the family in studies of women in science.
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For example, we show that, relative to their male counterparts, married women with children are less likely to pursue careers in science and engineering after the completion of science/engineering education4 less likely to be in the labor force or employed, less likely to be promoted,5 and less likely to be geographically mobile.6 Although some of the gender differences are attributable to the advantages that marriage and parenthood bestow upon men, they clearly suggest that being married and having children create career barriers that are unique to women -- as opposed to men -- scientists. 4Xie and Shauman (2003)
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At one extreme, some observers claim that gender differences in science are all due to innate biological differences between men and women. At the other extreme, some scholars are tempted to make a sweeping claim that all gender differences are due to discrimination against women in school and at work.
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. Sex differences in research productivity revisited: New evidence about an old puzzle.
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