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

2. Why Aren’t More Women in Science?
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?

3. 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?

4. Why Aren’t More Women in Science?
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?

5. How many women are in science?
Bachelor’s Degrees
**Engineering includes Aerospace, Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Industrial, Materials, and Mechanical Engineering fields.
© 2014, American Physical Society

6. % Women in CS has declined
From Computing Research Association

7. Women who major in physics mostly persist
© 2014, American Physical Society

8. Tenure Track Hiring Process
2004/2005
Tenure Track Hiring Process 50 40
PhD Pool 30
Applicants
Percent Women
Interviewed 20 10
Offers
Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the careers of science, engineering, and mathematics faculty , National Research Council; National Academies Press
If tenured, promoted to full at same rate
Biology
Chemistry
Civil Eng
Elect. Eng
Math
Physics
Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the careers of science, engineering, and mathematics faculty , National Research Council; National Academies Press

9. Tenure Track Hiring Process
2004/2005
Tenure Track Hiring Process 50 40
PhD Pool
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. 30
Applicants
Percent Women
Interviewed 20 10
Offers
Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the careers of science, engineering, and mathematics faculty , National Research Council; National Academies Press
If tenured, promoted to full at same rate
Biology
Chemistry
Civil Eng
Elect. Eng
Math
Physics
Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the careers of science, engineering, and mathematics faculty , National Research Council; National Academies Press

10. It begins in high school (?)
AIP high school physics

11. 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.

12. 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

13. Why Aren’t More Women in Science?
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?

14. Why Aren’t More Women in Science?
Frequently heard explanations
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

15. Innate abilities argument
Claim: 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

16. Innate abilities argument
Claim: 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

17. Do these tests accurately measure innate ability?
No.
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!
(Benbow, 2005)
(Levine, 2005)
(Ceci & Williams, 2007)

18. 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
Fewer than one-third of the white males had SAT-M scores above 650,
which is at the low end of the threshold for ability in mathematics typically presumed
to be required for success in these fields.
About one-fourth of the college-educated men and women in the STEM workforce had SAT-M scores below the 75th percentile, and more than half the men (and almost half the women) had scores below the 85th percentile—much closer to the fat part of the curve than anyone had imagined.
Wienberger, 2005

19. Why Aren’t There More Women in Science?
Frequently heard explanations
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

20. Why Aren’t There More Women in Science?
Frequently heard explanations
Women are innately less talented than men in the sciences
More risk-averse
Avoid competition
(Superior verbal skills in some areas)

21. Why Aren’t There More Women in Science?
Frequently heard explanations
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

22. Why Aren’t There More Women in Science?
Frequently heard explanations
What does it mean to “choose” if you grew up in a culture where there was no other acceptable option?
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

23. Why Aren’t There More Women in Science?
Frequently heard explanations
What does it mean to “choose” if you grew up in a culture where there was no other acceptable option?
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
What role does confidence play?
Attributions for success and failure
Imposter syndrome

24. Why Aren’t There More Women in Science?
Frequently heard explanations
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

25. Why Aren’t There More Women in Science?
Women are discouraged from pursuing the sciences
Unconscious bias and gender schemas
Active discouragement and/or discrimination
Unique to science and some other male-dominated fields.
Difficult to change through legislation.
Common experience of female scientists in the U.S.

26. What role does society play?
Let’s look at some of the most compelling and frequently cited studies.

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

28. 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.
K.A.
Education
D.B.
Experience
Norton, Vandello, & Darley, 2004

29. You are given a set of resumes for a job that requires a strong engineering background and experience in the construction industry.
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.
Male
Education
Female
Experience
Norton, Vandello, & Darley, 2004

30. You are given a set of resumes for a job that requires a strong engineering background and experience in the construction industry.
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.
Female
Education
Male
Experience
Norton, Vandello, & Darley, 2004

31. 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.
Norton, Vandello, & Darley, 2004

32. 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

33. Implicit Association Test
Test the amount of time it takes for you to associate words. Male + Science Female + Humanities Male + Humanities Female + Science
Father + Astronomy
Sister + Philosophy
Uncle + Literature
Mother + Biology
Nosek, Banaji & Greenwald, 2002

34. Implicit Association Test
Test the amount of time it takes for you to associate words. Male + Science Female + Humanities Male + Humanities Female + Science
Both men and women can more quickly pair
male + science
than
female + science.
Nosek, Banaji & Greenwald, 2002

35. Stereotype Threat
Negatively stereotyped populations underperform on challenging tests when reminded they are members of the underperforming group.
Give women GRE-style test.
Math Section
Verbal section
Men and women equally good at math
Men better at math, due to innate reasons
Men better at math, due to experience
Trigger thoughts of gender, but nothing to do with math
Dar-Nimrod & Heine, 2006

36. 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

37. 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).
Journal went blind in 2001

38. 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), (2012)

39. 2012 Study with actual Science Faculty
Mean starting salary Female: $26,508 Male: $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), (2012)

40. Why Aren’t More Women in Science?
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?

41. 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.

42. 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)

43. 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)

44. 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

45. 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.

46. Search Committee Deliberations
UMich 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
Pulled from “Addressing Unconscious Bias” Abigail Stewart, University of Michigan, in the Women in Astronomy Proceedings

47. Number of majors at undergraduate-only
Mount Holyoke Physics
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)
MHC
Number of majors at undergraduate-only
Institutions.

48. 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.

49. What do we do in Physics at MHC?
Academic rigor with a friendly, welcoming environment
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

50. 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

51. Questions? Syllabus from 2012
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, (gender schemas)