Women and STEM

Author(s):  
Marianne Robin Russo ◽  
Kristin Brittain

While battling great odds in terms of discrimination and bias, women within the United States have made valuable contributions to the workforce. Now that the second decade of the 21st century is upon us, women have come into all facets of the workforce, finding a niche in Internet Communications Technology (ICT) as well as within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), which should allow women more of an opportunity to pursue occupations. However, it seems that women are lagging in this part of the workforce within the constructs of science, technology, education, and mathematics also known as STEM. This glass ceiling, or gender barrier, may make matters worse in terms of reporting these kinds of women's issues because these reports are often written by men. In addition, the ideas and perceptions of masculinity and femininity have been scrutinized and analyzed in this chapter, and it is not difficult to realize the differences in gender based on biological functions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 1283-1297
Author(s):  
Mike Thelwall ◽  
Pardeep Sud

Ongoing problems attracting women into many Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects have many potential explanations. This article investigates whether the possible undercitation of women associates with lower proportions of, or increases in, women in a subject. It uses six million articles published in 1996–2012 across up to 331 fields in six mainly English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The proportion of female first- and last-authored articles in each year was calculated and 4,968 regressions were run to detect first-author gender advantages in field normalized article citations. The proportion of female first authors in each field correlated highly between countries and the female first-author citation advantages derived from the regressions correlated moderately to strongly between countries, so both are relatively field specific. There was a weak tendency in the United States and New Zealand for female citation advantages to be stronger in fields with fewer women, after excluding small fields, but there was no other association evidence. There was no evidence of female citation advantages or disadvantages to be a cause or effect of changes in the proportions of women in a field for any country. Inappropriate uses of career-level citations are a likelier source of gender inequities.


Author(s):  
Damon Cartledge

In this chapter, two issues are discussed that impact teaching and learning in technical and technology education. The issues are bound together by a concept of constructed knowledge and its inherent value. Knowledge constructed and operationalized in non–academic contexts is not well recognized in universities as having intellectual value. Developing knowledge that may be out of context from discipline homes can be misunderstood as lacking depth, when in fact they are highly complex arrangements of interdisciplinary constructed knowledge. The second issue is about how to conceptualize an educational structure in which this complex inter-disciplinary knowledge can be better recognized across educational divisions and strata. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is a well-established curriculum model that gives both clear definition/delineation (and cohesive purpose) to the interdependent discipline strands of the constructed knowledge under discussion. The chapter closes with an argument for a STE(A)M model, articulating the inclusion of an additional-alternative component for the Artist, Artisan, Artificer, Alchemist, Architect, and so forth, as a model to access, create, and re-value the construction of knowledge within universities of the 21st century.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (14) ◽  
pp. 6732-6736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prashant Loyalka ◽  
Ou Lydia Liu ◽  
Guirong Li ◽  
Igor Chirikov ◽  
Elena Kardanova ◽  
...  

We assess and compare computer science skills among final-year computer science undergraduates (seniors) in four major economic and political powers that produce approximately half of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates in the world. We find that seniors in the United States substantially outperform seniors in China, India, and Russia by 0.76–0.88 SDs and score comparably with seniors in elite institutions in these countries. Seniors in elite institutions in the United States further outperform seniors in elite institutions in China, India, and Russia by ∼0.85 SDs. The skills advantage of the United States is not because it has a large proportion of high-scoring international students. Finally, males score consistently but only moderately higher (0.16–0.41 SDs) than females within all four countries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. fe6 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Asai ◽  
Cynthia Bauerle

In spite of modest gains in the past four decades, the United States has not been able to substantially improve on the pervasive underrepresentation of minorities in postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways. We suggest a way to guide a national effort to double the persistence of underrepresented minorities in STEM in the next decade.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 719-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl B. Leggon

Over 50 years ago, concerns about the adequacy of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent in the United States were the catalyst to develop programs to ensure that the STEM workforce would be adequate to meet scientific challenges. To date, there have been considerable investments in these programs. To determine where we go from here requires appraising where we stand and reviewing how far we have come. This article presents reflections from my experiences conducting both research and evaluations on broadening participation in STEM in the United States.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-56
Author(s):  
Sarah Bunnell ◽  
Megan Lyster ◽  
Kristen Greenland ◽  
Gabrielle Mayer ◽  
Kristen Gardner ◽  
...  

In Fall 2015, Amherst College students held a four-day sit-in in unity with student protests occurring all over the United States highlighting barriers to inclusion of underrepresented and marginalized students.Following appeals for action, students partnered with faculty and staff in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to develop the Being Human in STEM (HSTEM) Initiative. HSTEM involves exploring past diversity and inclusion efforts in STEM, sharing one’s own experiences in STEM with others, and developing student-driven projects to improve belonging in STEM. In this student, faculty, and staff co-authored paper, we describe the origin of HSTEM; share student, faculty and staff reflections on our experiences with HSTEM; and present two inquiry projects examining HSTEM impact. We discuss lessons learned and recommendations for diversity and inclusion efforts in higher education, both in and beyond STEM, emphasizing the power of an initiative that was originated by and remains driven by student partners.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document