Women, Science, and Professional Advancement
October 22, 2009
by Optixmom
|Physorg.com posted an interesting article on October 20 regarding women’s advancement in the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The article was entitled: Gender Schemas Affect Women in Science, Says Expert. The article reviewed a presentation given by Dr. Virginia Valian, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Hunter College in New York City, in regard to data that supports reasons why women lag behind men in terms of professional advancement in the sciences.
Dr. Valian cited a 2006 National Science Foundation (NSF) study that showed how women’s advancement in academic professorships lagged behind men for the same time period post-PhD. She went on to show that the data disproves several myths regarding why women are not represented equally to their male counterparts within the sciences in academia. The myths in the article are described as:
The Pipeline – where it is said that not enough women are in the pipeline. Dr. Valian does concur that there are fewer women in the sciences but also points to the fact that women tend to leave the sciences at a faster rate then men. “The pipeline selectively leaks women,” she said. “It’s as if the pipeline has little holes in it, and they’re female shaped.”
A Childcare Problem – where it is said that inadequate childcare options keep women from pursuing higher careers in the sciences. But this myth is disproved by data showing women without children still lagging behind men in terms of advancement.
Values and Acculturation are also given as reasons for the lack of equity in advanced placement of women and Dr. Valian discusses these reasons and her data on her website at Tutorials for Change: Gender Schemas and Science Careers.
The main points of the article and Dr. Valian’s tutorials are that it can be shown that women do indeed advance more slowly than men and that women are held to a significantly higher standard than men when it comes to promotional opportunities. On her website she also compares progress for women in the areas of the humanities, medicine, and law. Even though all four disciplines are different, the result is the same; women do not get promoted as quickly as men and they have to work harder to receive equal treatment. Seeing this article after hearing about the Shriver Report makes me wonder how Dr. Valian views their data and their conclusions. I hope we get a chance to hear her weigh in on this in the very near future.
Gender schemas affect WOMEN?! Not men, though? Bull-SHIT.
Maybe we need to start studying not why girls are so wibbly and spinless that they “allow” gender schemas to inhibit their achievement in the sciences, but why men are so ready to accept gender schemas that give them carte blanche to act like animals toward women in the sciences.
WE ARE NOT THE FUCKING PROBLEM IN THE SCIENCES. Men act like raging assholes, specifically target us for harassment, abuse, and career sabotage, and WE’RE the ones affected by gender schemas?! EFFING PUH LEEZE!
Janis,
I do not believe the blame is being put on women. Historically the establishment have come up with excuses on why women are not equally represented in advanced positions in the sciences and I listed two of them that just don’t pan out. If you have a chance to check out Dr. Valian’s website at Hunter College you will see from the data that she collected that there are specific examples of how the male establishment and sexism keeps women from attaining equality at any high level profession.
Dr. Valian’s study completely contradicts The Shriver Report. She collected data from studying real cases of sexism in promotional systems, where it seems the Shriver Report asked individuals if they felt discriminated against or asked men if they discriminated against women. Of course many men will deny being sexist, especially if they don’t understand what everyday behavior (that is acceptable within our society) is sexist.
Dr. Valian is not the enemy, she is working very hard to remind everyone that sexism is entrenched in our society, is still acceptable, and cannot be just dismissed with lame excuses having to deal with us being able to have children. Male dominated establishments makes us work twice as hard for half the benefits; this is our reality.
Those who are happy with the status quo will continue to view any and all efforts to achieve gender parity as a threat. Therefore, they will continue to push the “Larry Summers” argument regarding women in math and the sciences. I think it is important that people like Dr. Valian continue to debunk their arguments.
Jennifer,
I’m reading through the Shriver Report in my extensive spare time, and although I haven’t read it all, so far I haven’t seen anything contradicting Dr Valian’s work. I’m curious about what you found that was contradictory. The report does make use of sidebar polls and raised quotes to make it more readable or somesuch, but those polls, some of which are rather fluffy, are not the main body of the report. I suspect that those who talked about the report in the mass media simply skimmed the sidebars and raised quotes and maybe read the executive summary. The main body is densely packed with data and studies that tend to support what feminists have said for years about the undervaluing of women’s work and the gender pay gap.
Apologies for the rather long excerpt, but this is just part of a very good treatment on the unexplainable part of the gender pay gap:
The Shriver Report is not our enemy. It doesn’t overtly advance a feminist agenda, but so far, does have the goods as far as going way beyond simple surveys asking whether men consider themselves sexist. This is as it should be, since any study or report overtly advancing an agenda, especially a feminist one, will be dismissed out of hand by anti-feminists, who are legion in this patriarchal world. As a feminist, and an engineer for over 20 years in the industry, I know altogether too well that the gender pay gap is not unexplainable, rather It’s the Patriarchy, Stupid, but I don’t expect any well-regarded study to blatantly come out and say that. It’s our job to advance the agenda, and also gather supporting data to advance that agenda.
HeroesGetMade,
I have to say, I have only seen the excerpts that are being highlighted in the press. The claims that “sexism is dead”. Thanks for taking the time to review the document and bring some of its good points here. I will take the time as well so that I can comment from a more educated viewpoint.
This is what we need. Fact finding and not media gloss over. I will make sure I don’t fall into the “gloss over” category.
–Jen
Leave your Response Want an avatar? Get a gravatar!
Community Room
February 6, 2012 at 4:25 pm
January 30, 2012 at 2:36 pm
January 26, 2012 at 4:38 pm
January 23, 2012 at 1:04 pm
January 15, 2012 at 11:37 am
January 9, 2012 at 6:36 pm
January 7, 2012 at 10:10 pm
January 5, 2012 at 9:31 am
BUILD your NETWORK
Our Network of College Women
Protecting our Teenage Girls
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Pioneer Mentors
Blogroll
Find us Online
Subscribe Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS)
The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...