Why Aren’t More Women in Science? Katherine Aidala Associate Professor of Physics Mount Holyoke College 4 February, 2015

Why Aren’t More Women in Science?Katherine Aidala

Associate Professor of PhysicsMount Holyoke College

4 February, 2015

http://xkcd.com/385/

There’s no simple answer, partly because there are many ways to interpret the question:

• Why are there so few women physics and computer science majors in college?

• Why are there so few female biology professors?• Why aren’t there more men in nursing? • Why do fewer women score in the extreme high

range on the SAT-Math?• Why aren’t there more women in leadership

positions in general?

Why Aren’t More Women in Science?


It’s easy to get confused by different compelling explanations for different questions.

Here’s where we’re going:• What are the statistics, and how are different

disciplines within the sciences different?• What are the commonly heard explanations (and

for what questions)?• What is the most compelling evidence?• What can we do about it?


• What are the statistics, and how are different disciplines within the sciences different?

• What are the commonly heard explanations (and for what questions)?

• What is the most compelling evidence?• What can we do about it?

How many women are in science?

www.aps.org © 2014, American Physical Society

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 20150%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

All Bachelor'sUS PopulationBiologyChemistryMath & StatsEarth SciencesEngineeringPhysics

Perc

ent

Bachelor’s Degrees

% Women in CS has declined

From Computing Research Association

13.7% in 2012/13

Women who major in physics mostly persist

www.aps.org © 2014, American Physical Society

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 20150%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Bachelor's

Doctorate

Postdoctorate

Perc

ent F

emal

e

2004/2005

Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the careers of science, engineering, and mathematics faculty. 2009, National Research Council; National Academies Press

Biology Chemistry Civil Eng Elect. Eng Math Physics

Perc

ent W

omen

50

40

30

20

10

0

PhD Pool

Applicants

Interviewed

Offers

Tenure Track Hiring Process

2004/2005

Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the careers of science, engineering, and mathematics faculty. 2009, National Research Council; National Academies Press

Biology Chemistry Civil Eng Elect. Eng Math Physics

Perc

ent W

omen

50

40

30

20

10

0

PhD Pool

Applicants

Interviewed

Offers

Tenure Track Hiring Process

The explanation for why there are fewer female biologists is probably different than

why there are fewer female physicists.

The explanations may change with time, and for different countries.

It begins in high school (?)

Physics vs. Biology

In Physics, we need to convince more women to take physics in high school and major in physics in college.

In Biology, we need to convince a few more women to get PhDs in biology, and then to continue working in biology.

In Biology, issues about child care and parental leave are important. In physics, this matters less right now.

Summary of Statistics

• Women are underrepresented in all science fields at high levels

• Women are more severely underrepresented in physics, computer science, and engineering as seen somewhat in high school, and distinctly in college major

• Many statistics hide the way the numbers add up




• What is the most compelling evidence?• What can we do?


• Women are innately less talented than men in the sciences

• Women “choose” careers that involve nurturing, or allow time to care for a family– This could be for innate biological reasons– This could be due to societal pressures

• Women are discouraged from pursuing the sciences– Unconscious bias and gender schemas– Active discouragement and/or discrimination

Frequently heard explanations

Innate abilities argumentClaim: Women do not have the innate talent to excel in the

sciences• Hormones are the mechanism, experiments with animals show

hormones matter in many behaviors, including navigation– Before hormones, it was believed to be sex chromosomes– Before sex chromosomes, it was believed to be brain size– The mechanism keeps changing, but the hypothesis does not!

• But there are no human experiments – see Brainstorm by Rebecca Jordan-Young for full critique

• Innate + Experience Argument: Early personality preferences may lead to different play and the accumulation of different experiences

Innate abilities argumentClaim: Women do not have the innate talent to excel

in the sciences

Evidence:– Poorer mental rotation skills when tested– More men at the high end of “ability” on many tests

Assumptions: – Tests accurately measure innate ability– Tests measure abilities relevant to success in STEM– These abilities resulted from evolution

(Benbow, 2005)

(Levine, 2005)

(Ceci & Williams, 2007)

Do these tests accurately measure innate ability?

• Not stable over time– Ratio of high scoring 13-yr-olds on the SAT-M changed from 13:1

in 1983 to 4:1 in 2005.– Variance changed

• Not consistent across socioeconomic class– Low SES kids do not show the gender difference in mental

rotation, while middle and high SES do.• Not stable across cultures

– Jewish kids score lower on mental rotations, but not under-represented

– Singaporean girls outscore American boys.– Eskimos do not show spatial ability difference (and women hunt)

• Respond to education and training– Video games like Tetris improve spatial skills!

No.

Do these tests measure abilities relevant to success in STEM?

What level of “talent” do you need to succeed in STEM?

• 3-5% of our workforce is college educated STEM workers

BUT:• More than half the men (and almost half the

women) in the STEM workforce have SAT-M scores below the 75th percentile

Wienberger, 2005

Why Aren’t There More Women in Science?






• Women are innately less talented than men in the sciences– More risk-averse– Avoid competition– (Superior verbal skills in some areas)











Frequently heard explanationsWhat does it mean to “choose” if you grew up in a

culture where there was no other acceptable option?





Frequently heard explanationsWhat does it mean to “choose” if you grew up in a

culture where there was no other acceptable option?

What role does confidence play?- Attributions for success and failure - Imposter syndrome








Unique to science and some other male-dominated fields.

Difficult to change through legislation.

Common experience of female scientists in the U.S.

What role does society play?

Let’s look at some of the most compelling and frequently cited studies.

Subjects view a video of a child. Half are given a girl name, half a boy name.

When the child’s emotions are clear, the subjects agree on the emotion.

When ambiguous (reacting to a jack-in-the-box), girls are more likely to be called “scared” while boys are “angry”.

You don’t treat an angry child and a scared child the same way.

Condry & Condry, 1976

You are given a set of resumes for a job that requires a strong engineering background and experience in the construction industry.

Only two are realistic choices. One has more experience, and the other more education.

When names were given by initials, 75% of the time the person with more education was chosen.

Norton, Vandello, & Darley, 2004

K.A.Education

D.B.Experience


• When names were given by initials, 75% of the time the person with more education was chosen, and education was declared most important.

• When the resume with more education was male and the female had more experience, same result.


MaleEducation

FemaleExperience


• When names were given by initials, 75% of the time the person with more education was chosen, and education was declared most important.

• When the resume with more education was male and more experience was female, same result.

• When the resume with more education was female, and the male had more experience, fewer than half chose the woman, and fewer than 25% said education was most important.


FemaleEducation

MaleExperience

You are given a set of resumes for a job that requires strong engineering background and experience in the construction industry.

The standards used to judge the resumes shifted based on the gender of the name. The justification for the choice changed.


Parent/Child interactions

Give questionnaires to parents and kids, ages 11 and 13. Ask them to engage in four activities.

• No gender difference in children’s science grades or interest

• Parents were more likely to believe that science was less interesting and more difficult for daughters than sons.

• Fathers tended to use more cognitively demanding speech with sons than daughters during the science tasks.

Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2003

Implicit Association Test

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Test the amount of time it takes for you to associate words.

Male + ScienceFemale + HumanitiesMale + HumanitiesFemale + Science

Nosek, Banaji & Greenwald, 2002

Father + AstronomySister + PhilosophyUncle + LiteratureMother + Biology


Implicit Association Test


Test the amount of time it takes for you to associate words.

Male + ScienceFemale + HumanitiesMale + HumanitiesFemale + Science

Nosek, Banaji & Greenwald, 2002

Both men and women can more quickly pair

male + science than

female + science.


Stereotype ThreatNegatively stereotyped populations underperform on

challenging tests when reminded they are members of the underperforming group.

Give women GRE-style test.(1) Math Section (2) Verbal section

a. Men and women equally good at mathb. Men better at math, due to innate reasonsc. Men better at math, due to experienced. Trigger thoughts of gender, but nothing to do with math

(3) Math Section

Dar-Nimrod & Heine, 2006

Stereotype Threat

Reading that women underperform due to different experiences results in the same performance as reading that there is no gender difference in math.

Dar-Nimrod & Heine, 2006

Does discrimination occur?• Female applicants needed to be 2.5 times more

productive to be considered as competent as a man with a similar record for a post-doctoral fellowship in Sweden, (Wenneras and Wold, 1996)

• Double blind review increased female authors by 33% increase in an ecology journal after review process became double-blind in 2001 (Budden, 2007)

• After many orchestra auditions became blind in the 70’s, a woman became several-fold more likely to be hired (Goldin, 2000).

2012 Study with actual Science Faculty

Ask science faculty (biology, chemistry, physics) to evaluate an application for a lab manager position.

Rate competence, hireability, deserving of mentoring, salary offers, and likeability.

Half the participants received applications with female names, half with male names.

Moss-Racusin et al., PNAS, 109(41), 16474 (2012)

2012 Study with actual Science Faculty

Mean starting salaryFemale: $26,508Male: $30,238

• Gender of faculty participant did not affect responses.• Perception of competence mediated hireability.• Subtle bias against women moderated rating of the female

candidate, but not the male.• Participants reported liking the female candidate more.

Moss-Racusin et al., PNAS, 109(41), 16474 (2012)




• What is the most compelling evidence?• What can we do?

Two case studies: CMU and MIT

When conscious changes are made in admissions or hiring, people always wonder if the new group is as talented as the old.

In the undergraduate computer science major at Carnegie Melon, the answer is yes.

Among faculty at MIT, the answer is yes.

CS at Carnegie Melon

The undergraduate computer science department transformed from 7% women to 42% women over five years in the late ‘90s, and improved retention of women.

• No longer required programming experience for admission.

• Change to three levels of introductory CS.• Outreach to high school CS teachers

Unlocking the Clubhouse, by Margolis and Fisher (2000)

CS at Carnegie Melon

The undergraduate computer science department transformed from 7% women to 42% women over five years in the late ‘90s, and improved retention of women.

Students in all three levels of intro received the same grades in the sophomore level courses.

Employment rates and salary did not change.

Unlocking the Clubhouse, by Margolis and Fisher (2000)

MIT Faculty• A self-study determined women were paid less and had

access to fewer resources at MIT. (1996, 1999)• Administration immediately made changes to create

equity among existing faculty.

• Hiring practices changed– Failed search if qualified female applicants were not

interviewed– Pooled open slots to hold multiple searches at once– When canvassing for outstanding applicants, add, “what

outstanding female candidates do you know?”– Declared overall excellence more important than specific field– Sought out candidates who would not have applied– Worked hard to get the selected applicant to come to MIT

MIT Faculty• A self-study determined women were paid less and had

access to fewer resources at MIT. (1996, 1999)• Administration immediately made changes to insure

equity of existing faculty.

New female hires are as successful (or more) than the male faculty.

Search Committee DeliberationsUMich made similar recruiting changes, and:

• Committee must consist of people committed to diversity; generates the right conversations.

• Discuss specific attributes of candidates, not an overall assessment.

• Ask for a list of the top three candidates for the different criteria you agreed were important, then discuss top choices.

• Require people to report what evidence they are using before making their assessment.

• Ignore statements like, “I didn’t go to the job talk and I haven’t read the work, but I don’t think he’s any good.”

• Remember that men tend to exaggerate and predict more future accomplishments than women will

Mount Holyoke Physics

MHC

Number of majors at undergraduate-only Institutions.

• Mount Holyoke now has over 10 physics majors a year.

Only schools with over 40 majors a year are likely to produce that many women.

(~15 large universities have this many majors)

Mount Holyoke Physics• Mount Holyoke now has over 10 physics

majors a year.• Two thirds of our graduates continue to PhD

programs in physics or engineering. – Most stay employed in STEM fields

• Our students regularly win NSF graduate fellowships, Fulbrights, Goldwater Fellowships, etc.

What do we do in Physics at MHC?

• Active learning techniques in the classroom, based on physics education research

• Research opportunities, beginning in the first year of college• Peer mentoring• Collaborative, group work is encouraged• Emphasize role that hard work plays• Lounge area near faculty offices with comfortable chairs, tables

to work together, computers, and a kitchen• Departmental social events• Seminar and workshop series that mentor the students in

careers and bring in diverse speakers• Target topics important to the student population (e.g.

renewable energy)• Diverse faculty

Academic rigor with a friendly, welcoming environment

What else can be done?• Require four years of high school math and science• Introduce engineering and computer science at an early age• Inform kids about engineering, emphasizing the importance to

society and role that collaborative work and work ethic play• Provide female role models• Encourage women to do science, tell them men and women can and

do go into science• Improve parental leave policies• Create a collaborative and supportive environment in undergraduate

classes and departments• Create a collaborative and supportive environment in the workplace• Change hiring practices• Track and publicize statistics within organizations• Redefine your notion of what a scientist is supposed to be, identify

talent and passion differently

Questions?

Why Aren’t More Women in Science? Ceci and Williams, 2007 Collection of essays by prominent researchers arguing different sides

Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing, Margolis and Fisher, 2002

Brain Storm: The flaws in the science of sex differences, Jordan-Young, 2010

Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women, Valian, 1998 (gender schemas)

Syllabus from 2012http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~kaidala/gender.html

[email protected]

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~kaidala/gender.html

Why Aren’t More Women in Science? Katherine Aidala Associate Professor of Physics Mount Holyoke College 4 February, 2015

Documents

fewer women

careers of science

different questions

different disciplines

sciences different

different countries

critical transitions

mathematics faculty