The acronym STEM simply refers to science, technology, engineering and math. The acronym does not mean that STEM defines any specific type of job only in the sense jobs are related to science, technology, engineering, and math. Because of the nature of these jobs refers to STEM industries, these types of jobs in education and social sciences are not included. The main jobs included are within the fields of computers and math. Almost the same number of boys and girls are graduating from high school and even more girls are graduating from college, yet women are still underrepresented in STEM industries. Though women comprise more than half of the workforce in the U.S economy, they hold less than twenty five percent of jobs in STEM industries. …show more content…
Gender discrimination in STEM industries is creating economic problems for women and the economy as a whole. Stansbury claims in her report, “A 2010 paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, that the gender-retention gap is driven more by women’s dissatisfaction with pay and promotion opportunities — potentially related to the glass ceiling and glass cliff effects. Research at the University of Delaware suggests that “stereotype threat” could be a factor, where negative images of women’s STEM skills could inhibit their performance” (Stansbury, para.1). In spite of sharing the same amount of work as their male colleagues, women are being paid less than their male counterpart which leads to their dissatisfaction and compels them to leave the industry. Unequal opportunities raised the question of unfairness, specifically in STEM fields, as women hold the same STEM education as their male colleagues. Beede (2011) claims, “-a robust finding that women earn considerably less than men, even after controlling for a wide set of characteristics such as education and age” (Beede, et., al). Studies show while women hold the same STEM degrees but, because they are women and getting paid less as a result, their earnings are being compromised because of gender. Other data espoused by Beede states, “on average, men and …show more content…
Ethical issues are being raised due to the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields and stereotype threats arises which are relevant to evaluating performance. A research report by Hills shows that’s stereotype threat is one compelling explanation for why women remain underrepresented in STEM fields” (Hills, Para. 2). People have implicit biases and they unconsciously believe that women cannot do better in math and science as they underestimate women’s capabilities. People’s negative stereotypes continue to influence their views about women in technology fields. Romano (2016) wrote, “There are several forms of sexism present in the academic setting, such as considering women less competent in mathematics than their male counterparts or considering men lower than their female counterparts in languages (Romano, para. 2). Underrepresentation of women in technology is a complex issue as male colleagues undervalue women, thinking they cannot be good in math and technology which lowers women’s aspirations. According to the researchers at Pew Research Center, K. Parker & C. Funk, a survey conducted in July and August (2017) women in the United States believe gender discrimination is a big problem in tech industries. The survey goes on to state, “The survey comes amid public debate about
Throughout the world, discrimination in all forms has continued to be a constant struggle; whether it’s racial, gender based, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything that makes one person different from another, it’s an everyday occurrence. A major place that discrimination is occurring at is in the workplace. One of the largest problems discrimination issues is believed to be gender. Women, who have the same amount of experience as men are not getting paid at the same rate as men, these women also are equally trained and educated. According to the article Gender Pay, it was discovered in 2007 that a woman makes 81 cents for every dollar a man earns.(“Gender Pay”) . This shouldn’t be happening in today’s society for the fact the society lived in today is suppose to be more accepting. Men are viewed as being more popular, valuable and having higher powers than women. The Reason Discrimination is involved in the equal pay equal work is because of the significance it has to how some businesses pay their employees.
Words can be powerful, especially when those words are spoken by the president of a top university. In a 2005 speech by Lawrence Summers, he put forth the hypothesis that there are more men than women in the most high end positions due to a different set of measurable attributes, rather than it being caused by pervasive sexism or discrimination. To make it to the top of highly demanding fields, one has to be of exceptional quality and these are “people who are three and a half, four standard deviations above the mean in the one in 5,000, one in 10,000 class” (Summers, 2005). Summers is making the point that we should analyze the dataset that produces this type of result, rather than saying it’s all because of discrimination. Summers does not deny that discrimination exists, but he argues it cannot explain every difference. While there are more women in science and math based majors than ever before, fewer of them are in the top research positions that require the most demanding work and longest hours. Summers was strongly criticized and forced to resign as president of Harvard.
Today’s college students have the opportunity and freedom to choose their major and their career path. Many factors influence the decision of a college student’s career paths including background, general interests, personal strengths, time commitment, and job outlook. Although many important decisions are made in college, one of the most important is the choice of major and career track. Out of hundreds of majors the science and engineering fields are under-represented by women. Although the numbers of women in science technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM, majors has been increasing in the past years, women still are in the minority in the STEM fields. In her study, Lona Whitmarsh concluded, “that career opportunities for women have widened,” but “not enough change has occurred to show significant differences between the overall population” (49). It is good that more women are entering these fields, but there are still not enough young women aspiring to fill the gaps. Further statistics show that female representation in engineering continues to be low, “in 2008 only 19 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 22.9 percent of masters, and 14.8 percent of PhDs in engineering were awarded to women” (Bystydzienski 2). Although there has been a general increase of women entering the fields of science and mathematics, overall the numbers are still low, showing that women struggle in pursuing a degree within these fields, and that many factors can lead to a female not choosing to begin or complete college in a STEM major. Women are in the minority of STEM fields.
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
STEM is an acronym standing for science, technology, engineering, and math. Stem stands for science, technology, engineering, and math because those are the four things that are essential for success. Also, because these are the four-most field involved in real world activities and jobs. Stem can also be used to stimulate ones imagination, but Stem can also be fun. When doing stem you can do many fun things that not only stimulate your imagination, but also allow you to experience fun such as building balsa wood bridges, making mousetrap cars, constructing water bottle rockets, or doing fun clubs like sea perch, NESBE, VEX, and/or
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which are needed in our daily lives. Science is used from elementary to college and other places around the world. Technology has continuous advantages that happen 24/ 7. Engineering is the foundation of bridges, buildings, and roadways. Then mathematics is necessary in various careers but also in everyday live. STEM careers the break the traditional gender roles that allows women to have more opportunities. As a result there are numerous women that created impacts which changed the world for the better. One woman in STEM that mainly impacted and inspired me was Hattie Scott Peterson.
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.
Reasons as to why gender wage gap exist so heavily, slightly differs from country to country but the overall effect from the wage disparity is wholly evident. Few agreeable reasons as to why the gap continues, expressed by the European Commission, are either by traditions and stereotypes, “glass ceiling” direct discrimination, and the undervaluing of women’s work ("What Are the Causes?). Several claim that the persistency of gender wage gap is that men and females differ in their choice of profession and educational degrees. Men, traditionally, attain “career-oriented” degrees such as engineering, sciences, and business, in which...
Over the years there have been many changes in the work-place. Since the second World War there has been a steady increase of women on the workforce across all the different types of careers there are in the United States. Some careers have seen more of a rapid change than others, a few of the career fields that have not really had much growth in gender diversity have been Engineering and Technology. Both of these fields have always been more male dominate throughout the history of their existence. The problem is that both of these careers demand a constant stream of new innovative ideas to fuel advancements in different types of technology. Those advancements are also very important to the public’s day to day life, as both of these fields are all around us every day. There is no better way to get new ideas than to bring in someone who has a different thought process than you. That is why colleges and companies need to try harder to bring in women to these careers rather than overlook them. With that being said if someone is not right for the job, then they’re not right for the job, the problem is that many companies are choosing male engineers over female engineers. If the careers in these to field want to keep having great advancement, they’re going to need all the great minds that we can get, and stop turning so many away. There has been a lot of research done over this same subject over several years but the results do not seem to be changing, and again and again they always seem to so that men are favored over women when it comes to getting a job in the engineering and technology fields. The problem all boils down to the companies and colleges, both of which need to change so those who desire to excel in these fields, get ...
For many decades, women have faced inequalities in the workforce. At one point, they were not allowed to work at all. Although women's rights have improved and are now able to work alongside men, they are still treated unfairly. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, women’s earnings were “76.5 percent of men’s” (1). In 2012, men, on average, earned $47,398 and women earned only $35,791. This is when comparing employees where both gender spend the same amount of time working. Not only do women encounter unfairness in work pay, they also face a “glass ceiling” on a promotional basis. This glass ceiling is a “promotion barrier that prevents woman’s upward ability” (2). For example, if a woman is able to enter a job traditionally for men, she will still not receive the same pay or experience the same increase in occupational ability. Gender typing plays a huge role in the workplace. It is the idea that women tend to hold jobs that are low paid with low status. Women are not highly considered in leadership positions because of social construction of gender. Society has given women the role of “caretakers” and sensitive individuals. Therefore, women are not depicted as authoritative figures, which is apparent with the absence of women in leadership roles in companies. Furthermore, sex segregation leads to occupations with either the emphasis of women in a certain job or men in a certain job. In 2009, occupations with the highest proportion of women included “secretary, child care worker, hair dresser, cashier, bookkeeper, etc.” (3). Male workers typically held job positions as construction workers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, etc. (3). Sex segregation represents inequality because the gender composition for these jobs depends on what ...
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
Despite the strenuous effort of feminists, female scientists are still underrepresented in science. According to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science in Engineering (2007) that in 2004, women earned only 44 percent of the PhDs in science and engineering received by U.S. citizens and permanent residents 1. Many educated intellectuals attribute this phenomenon to innate biological factors. For instance, ex-Harvard president and economist Lawrence Summers delivered a speech in 2005 at the NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce in which he claimed that instead of socialization, innate or biological differences between men and women cause sex differences in mathematical aptitude and subsequent adult career choice 2. This idea is especially prevalent in modern society—that women are
Today in the United States, men make more than women in various sectors, including education and other trades favoring women workers. The gap gets bigger when comparing the wages earned by men to those of women in jobs favoring men workers such as construction or other physically demanding jobs. Women are less likely to work those jobs, therefor; men have the advantage of having more experience and get paid better. In addition, employers would rather hire a man instead of a woman because they believe that a man will be able to sustain the difficulty of the job and work longer hours which crate a disadvantage for women because they are unable to gain experience and become skilled in that certain field. Gender pay gap based on this information is explained as the result of the discrimination of employers toward the feminine sex in terms of pay, which discourage them to work certain jobs leading to create a bigger gap due to the lack of
Girls are seen as caring, nurturing, quiet, and helpful. They place other’s needs above their own. Girls get ahead by hard work, not by being naturally gifted. Boys are seen as lazy, but girls are seen as not capable. In class, teacher will call on boys more than they call on girls. Boys are seen as better at math and science; while girls are better at reading and art. This bias is still at work even out of the classroom. There are more males employed at computer firms than women. The ratio of male to female workers in STEM fields is 3-1. In college, more women major in the humanities than in the sciences. In education, women are often seen as lesser than; even though 65% of all college degrees are earned by women. Women are still often seen as needing to be more decorative than intellectual, as represented by the Barbie who included the phrase, “Math is hard!” and the shirt that JC Penneys sold that said, “I’m too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me.” While there was a backlash on both items, it points out that there is a great deal of work to do on the educational gender bias to be
Despite government regulations to promote equality within the workplace, women’s salaries continue to lag behind males in similar career with similar experiences. According to research performed by Blau & Kahn (2007) “women salaries averaged about 60% of men’s until the 1970s and rose to nearly 80% by the 1990s” (as cited in Bendick, Jr. & Nunes, 2012, p.244). Today, women on average earn approximately $.81 for every dollar that men earn in the United States (Guy and Fenley P.41 2014).