Women Scientist

Women Scientists

The Women’s Movement first began in America in the late eighteenth century, since then women have constantly had to fight a battle for basic rights such as voting, working, and even receiving an education. While women have overcome numerous obstacles to obtain equal rights, are women truly equal? Although women have come a long way since the eighteenth century, recent studies have shown that women still face discrimination in the sciences.  In particular, professors view women as inferior to men in the sciences, women have greater difficulty gaining employment in the sciences, and when hired are paid less than their male counterparts.

Growing up I never felt that science was a male dominated field. However now looking back I had more female teachers than male, but I never realized that all of my science teachers had been male. Therefore it should not have surprised me on my orientation day at Californian State University Northridge (CSUN) I had chosen electrical engineering as a major after strong encouragement from my father, who is an engineer himself. But, my father had forgotten to warn me that males largely dominated the sciences, particularly engineering. When I walked into orientation I immediately realized I was surrounded by men, there were only fabout 15 other females in the room. I was shocked. Interestingly, my friend who is studying computer science at CSUN told me a similar story. When she walked into her orientation she was overwhelmed by how many more males there were than females.  

After doing research on the topic, I stumbled upon information about the graduating Electrical Engineering majors at CSUN in 2009-2010. There were 101 graduating males while there were only 17 females in the graduating class (Match College). Moreover, in a recent study the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences conducted both male and female professors were found to be biased against females studying the sciences. The study surveyed 127 professors, asking them to rate the students according to their capability on a scale out of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. The male professors rated the male students with an average rating of 4.01 and the female students with an average rating of 3.33. The female professors then rated the male students with an average rating of 4.10 and the female students with an average rating of 3.32 (Jaschik). The most surprising fact about this study was that the female professors were just as biased as the male professors.

 Even after graduating with an Engineering degree, women still face discrimination when trying to find employment. Peter Hicks, a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, states “in my 40 years of teaching electrical engineering at Manchester University women never made up more than 5% of my classes.”  Furthermore, the number of female students enrolled in the sciences has been steadily decreasing, five years ago, women made up 24% of computer science classes, now they make up just 19% (Davis). These startling new studies prove that this problem is only becoming worse. In my opinion this problem is deep-rooted, starting from elementary school. There are very few teachers in elementary school with a science related background (Hess). This needs to change so children can grow up with a more of an extensive knowledge in the sciences.

Besides the fact that according to new studies that professors are biased against female science students in universities, female scientists have continued to battle sexism in their careers by earning significantly less than male scientists. The same study that surveyed 127 professors asking about male and female student capabilities also asked the professors how much they believed the students should be paid after graduating. The male professors assumed the male students would be paid $30,520, Whereas the females would be paid $27,111. The female professors believed the male students would be paid $29,333 and the females $25,000 (Jachik). These discriminating attitudes lead to unequal opportunities amongst male and females, which may be offered from the university (Jaschik). In fact, aside from professors speculating that women scientist get paid less than their male counterparts, according to recent studies conducted by The Glassdoor, a website that estimates the pay of various careers, it is a fact. Female engineers earned 96.7% of their male counterparts early in their careers, and as the experience increases so does the gap in their salaries. Thus, four-six years of experience females earned 91.4%, in seven-nine years females earned 92.7% of what men earned, and then after ten-plus years, women earned 89.1% of what men earned (Besse). These biases resulted with women being paid less than men even though they are equally capable.

The issue of stereotyping is extremely important to resolve because when females look at these studies and realize they will be paid less than men, even though they may be equally capable, it will make them reconsider their career and steer more towards the careers viewed “traditionally” for women. To solve this issue it is important to continue to urge women to study the sciences and even out the ratio of men-to-women changing the attitudes of professors and employers so that they realize that women are just as capable as men. In order to foster more women more in the science fields Amanda Hess, author of the article “How to Fix the Bias against Women in Science? Think Big”, interviewed sixth grade science teacher Janelle Wilson, who suggests encouraging “schools to engage boys and girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) subjects early, before biases set in (Hess). Although this solution is helpful it will not be able to solve the bigger problem. Author of “Numbers of Women in Engineering, Physics and Computer Science are on the Decline” Emma Knott, states that this problem is not so simple to solve. After observing countries where there are a slightly higher percentage of female scientists, researchers found that women have more political power in those countries revealing that that the two issues are intertwined. Furthermore, the countries where there are more women scientists have “government policies that support childcare, equal pay, and gender mainstreaming” (Knott). After seeing these studies, it is evident that the solution to this problem is targeting government policies and having the government directly encourage females to pursue a science degree.

Even though women have indeed come a long way since the eighteenth century, it is important to realize women are still not treated equally to men. There are still stereotypes that women cannot prosper in the harder subjects, such as, mathematics and sciences. When attempting to master the sciences women are faced with extreme challenges along the way causing them to avoid these subjects for their own good. But when looking for a solution to this issue it is important realize it is a lot broader than it seems. Having more women scientists directly ties in with governmental policies, the more equality government policies push, the more powerful women there will be. 

By Heba 

Work Cited

Besse, Tim. "Engineering Pay Gap? Glassdoor Reveals Many Women Engineers Earn Less than Men." Glassdoor. N.p., 10 Mar. 2009. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/engineering-pay-gap-glassdoor-reveals-many-women-engineers-earn-less-than-men/>.

Jaschik, Scott. "Study Offers New Evidence That Scientists Are Biased against Women | Inside Higher Ed." Study Offers New Evidence That Scientists Are Biased against Women | Inside Higher Ed. Inside High Ed, 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/21/study-offers-new-evidence-scientists-are-biased-against-women>.

Knott, Emma. "New Gender Benchmarking Study Finds Numbers of Women in Science and Technology Fields Alarmingly Low." New Gender Benchmarking Study Finds Numbers of Women in Science and Technology Fields Alarmingly Low. N.p., 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/e-ngb100312.php>.

Hass, Amanda. "How to Fix the Bias Against Women in Science? Think Big." The XX Factor. Slate, 4 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/10/04/women_in_science_fixing_the_bias_requires_broad_social_change_.html>.