Gender and

Science

"Woman teaching geometry“Illustration at the beginning of a medieval translation of Euclid's Elements (c. 1310 AD)

Overview

• Women are leaving academia• Why?– Implicit biases• What is valued?

– Unique challenges• Juggling roles

• What to do?– Change society– Change our minds

Overview

• Women are leaving academia• Why?– Implicit biases• What is valued?

– Unique challenges• Juggling roles

• What to do?– Change society– Change our minds

“Everyone has their role”

More women earn doctorates

Taken from: http://best.berkeley.edu/~aagogino/papers/WIA_findings.pdf

After that…

Taken from: http://ucfamilyedge.berkeley.edu/leaks.html

27% women

40% women

Discrepancies

• Women faculty are:– paid less– promoted more slowly– receive fewer honors– hold fewer leadership positions

• These discrepancies not based on:– productivity– significance of their work– any other measure of performance

Slide from: http://best.berkeley.edu/~aagogino/papers/WIA_findings.pdf

Overview

• Women are leaving academia• Why?– Implicit biases• What is valued?

– Unique challenges• Juggling roles

• What to do?– Change society– Change our minds

Biases against women, by men and women

• “Overall, scientists and engineers who are women… have had to function in environments that favor—sometimes deliberately but often inadvertently—men. Accumulation of disadvantage becomes especially acute in more senior positions.” [my emphasis]

• “Well-qualified and highly productive women scientists also contend with continuing questioning of their own abilities in science and mathematics and their commitment to an academic career.” [my emphasis]

Taken from: http://best.berkeley.edu/~aagogino/papers/WIA_findings.pdf

Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students

• “Faculty participants rated the male applicant [for a laboratory manager position] as significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female applicant.“

• “These participants also selected a higher starting salary and offered more career mentoring to the male applicant.”

• “…female and male faculty were equally likely to exhibit bias against the female student” [my emphasis]

Moss-Racusin CA, Dovidio JF, Brescoll VL, Graham MJ, Handelsman J. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Oct 9; 109(41):16474-9

Impact of gender on the review of curricula vitae

• “…both male and female academicians were significantly more likely to hire a potential male colleague than an equally qualified potential female colleague. “

• “Furthermore, both male and female participants were more likely to positively evaluate the research, teaching, and service contributions of a male job applicant than a female job applicant with an identical record.” [my emphasis]

Rhea E . Steinpreis, Katie A . A nders, and Dawn Ritzke. Sex Roles, Vol. 41, No s. 7/8, 1999.

IAT: Women and science

• Male– Man, Boy, Father, Male, Grandpa, Husband, Son, Uncle

• Female– Girl, Female, Aunt, Daughter, Wife, Woman, Mother,

Grandma• Science

– Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Math, Geology, Astronomy, Engineering

• Liberal Arts– Philosophy, Humanities, Arts, Literature, English, Music,

History

I am strongly biased

• “Your data suggest a strong association of Male with Science and Female with Liberal Arts compared to Female with Science and Male with Liberal Arts.”

• Automatic association between Male and Science– Responded faster when:

• Male names and Science words were classified with the same key

• Female names and Liberal Arts words were classified with the same key

Really bad: Thinking you are unbiased when you really are

• “When people believe that they are objective, they feel licensed to act on biases whose influence they may have otherwise suppressed due to personal and social inhibitions.“

• “To the extent that individuals harbor stereotypic thoughts and beliefs, as many do (Devine et al., 1991), such a state of self-perceived objectivity may increase gender discrimination.”

E.L. Uhlmann, G.L. Cohen / Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (2007)

Women’s own biases toward themselves

“Participants were given evidence that contrast sensitivity ability was either an ability that men were more likely to have (male advantage or “MA” condition) or an ability that showed no gender difference… “

“In the MA condition, women believed they had to earn a score of at least 89 percent to be successful, but men felt that a minimum score of 79 percent was sufficient to be successful... This finding suggests that women hold themselves to a higher standard than their male peers do in “masculine” fields.”

Why so few: http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/whysofew.pdf

Overview

• Women are leaving academia• Why?– Implicit biases• What is valued?

– Unique challenges• Juggling roles

• What to do?– Change society– Change our minds

What qualities are valued?

• “…qualities mentioned in recommendation letters for women differ sharply from those for men”– Female candidates described in more communal (social or

emotive) terms– Male candidates in more agentic (active or assertive) terms

• “…letter writers included more doubt raisers when recommending women”– "She might make an excellent leader“– "He is already an established leader“

• "The more communal characteristics mentioned, the lower the evaluation of the candidate."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2010-11-letters-women-jobs.html#jCp

Recommendation letters could cost women jobs, promotions

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2010-11-letters-women-jobs.html#jCp

Com

mun

al • Affectionate• Helpful• Kind• Sympathetic• Nurturing• Tactful• Agreeable• Helping others• Taking direction well

Agen

tic

• Confident• Aggressive• Ambitious• Dominant• Forceful• Independent• Daring• Outspoken• Intellectual• Speaking assertively• Influencing others• Initiating tasks

Our public image

• Too kind? Too nurturing? Too agreeable?• Not aggressive enough? Not dominant

enough? Not forceful enough?

Why are these bad?!?

Why are these good?!?

Arbitrary and subjective evaluation criteria

• Characteristics that are often selected for and are believed to relate to scientific creativity— namely assertiveness and single-mindedness—are given greater weight

• Other characteristics may be more vital to success in science and engineering– flexibility, diplomacy, curiosity, motivation, dedication

• At the same time, assertiveness and single-mindedness are stereotyped as socially unacceptable traits for women. [my emphasis]

Slide from: http://best.berkeley.edu/~aagogino/papers/WIA_findings.pdf

Overview

• Women are leaving academia• Why?– Implicit biases• What is valued?

– Unique challenges• Juggling roles

• What to do?– Change society– Change our minds

Women need to have children before they reach a certain age

Taken from: http://rba-online.com/ivf/index.php?Egg-Freezing-Fertility-Preservation-19

(Not) having children

Taken from: http://geknitics.com/2009/11/the-leaky-pipeline/

• 48% of tenure track women do not have children

Scientists Want More Children

• Female scientists at top universities – Have fewer children than their male colleagues– More likely to say that, due to the science career,

they have fewer children than they want• Yet having fewer children than desired has a

greater impact on men's life satisfaction• Young scientists who have had fewer children

than wished are more likely to plan to exit science entirely

Ecklund EH, Lincoln AE (2011) Scientists Want More Children. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22590. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022590

Old, outdated system

• “Structural constraints and expectations built into academic institutions assume that faculty members have substantial spousal support. Anyone lacking the work and family support traditionally provided by a “wife” is at a serious disadvantage in academe.”

• “36% of men, compared to only 8% of women, have spouses who stay at home”

Taken from: http://best.berkeley.edu/~aagogino/papers/WIA_findings.pdfhttp://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/25887/title/Fixing-the-Leaky-Pipeline/flagPost/42165/

“Nearly sixty-hour workweeks, combined with a disproportionate share of household labor and

child care, make young women think twice about careers in academic science”

Londa Schiebinger and Shannon K. Gilmartin: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2010/JF/feat/schie.htm Mason and Goulden put it in their 2004 Academe article, “Do Babies Matter? (Part II)

Don’t forget the men

• “The nearly one-third of those studied in the egalitarian category talked in their interviews of many of the same pressures that female scientists with families experience -- especially "extreme hours and intricate schedules.“”

• “Many discussed the need to sacrifice (especially sleep and leisure time) to try to make it all work.”

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/08/22/sociologists-consider-how-male-scientists-balance-work-and-family#ixzz2C3w18ZdT Inside Higher Ed

We can’t afford to lose these people

• “[Mason’s and Goulden’s] recent research indicates that women PhDs turn away from academic science because they face a culture that precludes time and responsibility for home, family, and life.“

• “Considering the cost of training PhD scientists, this is an expensive proposition for science and society.”

Londa Schiebinger and Shannon K. Gilmartin: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2010/JF/feat/schie.htm Mason and Goulden put it in their 2004 Academe article, “Do Babies Matter? (Part II)

Overview

• Women are leaving academia• Why?– Implicit biases• What is valued?

– Unique challenges• Juggling roles

• What to do?– Change society– Change our minds

Gender equality closes the math gap

Guiso, L., Monte, F., Sapienza, P., and Zingales, L. 2008. Culture, Gender, and Math. Science 320 (May 30): 1164.

Iceland!

USA

What makes a country gender equal?

• The Global Gender Gap Index 2012 – economic participation and

opportunity– educational attainment– health and survival– political empowerment

Greatest step toward gender equality in Iceland

• Paid parental leave for everyone, men and women

Academia needs to change

• “When will we start worrying less about the pipeline's leaks and do more to address the corrosive nature of the pipe that we funnel people through?” (Micella Phoenix DeWhyse, http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org)

• Why would you change a system that:– Favors you?– You don’t realize needs changing?

Overview

• Women are leaving academia• Why?– Implicit biases• What is valued?

– Unique challenges• Juggling roles

• What to do?– Change society– Change our minds

You cannot change what you don’t realize needs changing

• “I give my male colleagues endless grief when they organize symposia and forget to invite women speakers. Most women are as well-respected as their male colleagues, but still forgotten when invitations are extended and awards, and other honors, are decided. Ironically, today’s bias usually results from lack of attention, rather than from malicious intent. But the rejoinder of, “Oh, I didn’t notice that I had invited 20 men and no women” infuriates me… because I know that all of the young women in the field do notice.” [my emphasis]

Eve Marder. Current Biology Vol 20 No 10

What kind of society do we

want to live in?

Extra slides

Underrepresentation of women

Biological scientists

Chemists and materials sci-

entists

Environmen-tal scientists

and geoscien-tists

Computer scientists and systems ana-

lysts

Computer programmers

Computer software engineers

Chemical engineers

Civil en-gineers

Electrical and electronics engineers

Mechanical engineers

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Perc

enta

ge o

f W

omen

Taken from U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009, Women in the labor force: A databook (Report 1018) (Washington, DC), Table 11.

“Math gap”

Guiso, L., Monte, F., Sapienza, P., and Zingales, L. 2008. Culture, Gender, and Math. Science 320 (May 30): 1164.

Report: Beyond Bias and Barriers

• “On the average, people are less likely to hire a woman than a man with identical qualifications”

• “People are less likely to ascribe credit to a woman than to a man for identical accomplishments”

• “When information or time is scarce, people will far more often give the benefit of the doubt to a man than to a woman”

Taken from: http://best.berkeley.edu/~aagogino/papers/WIA_findings.pdf

The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job Applicants and Tenure

Candidates: A National Empirical Study• Participants: 238 male and female academic

psychologists

Rhea E . Steinpreis, Katie A . Anders, and Dawn Ritzke. Sex Roles, Vol. 41, No s. 7/8, 1999.

Housework is an academic issue

• “Partnered women scientists at places like Stanford University do 54 percent of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in their households”

• “Partnered men scientists do just 28 percent”• “This translates to more than ten hours a

week for women— in addition to the nearly sixty hours a week they are already working as scientists—and to just five hours for men”Londa Schiebinger and Shannon K. Gilmartin:

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2010/JF/feat/schie.htm Mason and Goulden put it in their 2004 Academe article, “Do Babies Matter? (Part II)

Child care

• “…women scientists do 54 percent of parenting labor in their households, and men scientists do 36 percent (“parenting labor” refers to physical, psychosocial, and intellectual responsibilities).

• “women who have children within five years of receiving their doctorate are less likely to achieve tenure than are men with “early babies.” “[early *cough cough*]Londa Schiebinger and Shannon K. Gilmartin:

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2010/JF/feat/schie.htm Mason and Goulden put it in their 2004 Academe article, “Do Babies Matter? (Part II)

Lower pitch and feelings of power

• “People judge a person whose voice pitch was lowered as more powerful than the same person whose pitch was raised (Puts, Gaulin, & Verdolini, 2006; Puts, Hodges, Cardenas, & Gaulin, 2007).”

• “Participants who lowered their voice pitch perceived themselves more as possessing more powerful traits… and had a higher level of abstract thinking… compared to participants who raised their voice pitch”

Lowering the Pitch of Your Voice Makes You Feel More Powerful and Think More AbstractlyMarielle Stel, Eric van Dijk, Pamela K. Smith, Wilco W. van Dijk, and Farah M. Djalal

Awful reward schedule

• “…doing research in the biological sciences has become increasingly plagued by long training periods with little positive reinforcement. “

• “Therefore, many of our most smart and creative young scientists find it difficult to understand that they are making a difference. While women are as stubborn and smart as men, they may be preferentially discouraged by a field that denies them, for long periods of time, the validation of a “job well done”. Therefore, they, and many able men, leave science to find that sense of satisfaction elsewhere.”

Eve Marder. Current Biology Vol 20 No 10

Not only the U.S.

Taken from: http://www.rensenieuwenhuis.nl/the-leaky-pipeline-of-womens-academic-careers/

Work-Family Balance

Taken from: http://ucfamilyedge.berkeley.edu/workfamily.html

What constitutes work?

• “When combined with caregiving hours and house work, UC women faculty with children, ages 30 to 50, report a weekly average of over 100 hours of combined activities (in comparison to around 86 hours for men with children).”

• “To lose talented scholars…because of our failure to provide baseline family responsive policies seems pennywise but pound foolish.” [my emphasis]

Staying Competitive, Patching America’s Leaky Pipeline in the Scienceshttp://geknitics.com/2009/11/the-leaky-pipeline/