While growing up, we are all told that we can do anything we set our minds to. We can be singers, actors, and astronauts. Not even they sky is the limit to us. So why is it that when women join a STEM field, they are met with bias at every turn, just because of their gender? Between 1998 and 2010, over half a million people from all over the world took what is known as the gender-science IAT (implicit-association test), which measures the strength of a person’s associations between concepts and evaluations. The gender-science IAT measured the correlation between math-arts and male-female. Approximately 70% of test takers associated math with men and arts with female. These results confirmed the stereotype in which people believe that
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During this study, four patterns of bias against women in STEM quickly became uncovered. Pattern one has become known as the Prove-it-Again pattern. Out of all the women interviewed and surveyed, two-thirds stated that they had to prove more evidence showing their competence than others. They continually had their expertise questioned because of their gender. Pattern two is known as the Tightrope. In the Tightrope pattern, many women have to walk a fine line between being seen as too feminine or too masculine in the workplace. If they directly spoke their minds or became decisive, they experienced backlash for not acting more feminine. More than one third of women reported that they felt pressure in the workplace to act more feminine, but once they did they were no longer seen as competent. Transpiring next was the Maternal Wall pattern. More than two-thirds of female scientists with kids stated that after they had their children, their competence became questioned even more than before. The fourth pattern to arise out of this study was the Tug-of-War pattern. Since there are fewer women on STEM fields, more competition has arisen. One-fifth of the scientists said they felt that they are having to compete with other female scientists for the “female place” on the scientific team. These are just four of the many biases women face frequently when working in STEM divisions, and just a few reasons that show why fewer women are in STEM
During this study, four patterns of bias against women in STEM quickly became uncovered. Pattern one has become known as the Prove-it-Again pattern. Out of all the women interviewed and surveyed, two-thirds stated that they had to prove more evidence showing their competence than others. They continually had their expertise questioned because of their gender. Pattern two is known as the Tightrope. In the Tightrope pattern, many women have to walk a fine line between being seen as too feminine or too masculine in the workplace. If they directly spoke their minds or became decisive, they experienced backlash for not acting more feminine. More than one third of women reported that they felt pressure in the workplace to act more feminine, but once they did they were no longer seen as competent. Transpiring next was the Maternal Wall pattern. More than two-thirds of female scientists with kids stated that after they had their children, their competence became questioned even more than before. The fourth pattern to arise out of this study was the Tug-of-War pattern. Since there are fewer women on STEM fields, more competition has arisen. One-fifth of the scientists said they felt that they are having to compete with other female scientists for the “female place” on the scientific team. These are just four of the many biases women face frequently when working in STEM divisions, and just a few reasons that show why fewer women are in STEM