Do we really have to paint a picture to make the serious under-representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields any clearer? YES, decided the faculty at New Jersey Institute of Technology, who have released the infograph, “Are Stereotypes Keeping Women Away from Science?”
Paint a picture it does. A quick glance reveals that women are represented half as much in STEM professions (25%) as they are in the workforce, while rarer yet in engineering and computer and mathematical sciences. From associates to doctorate, women are much less likely to convert their (relatively fewer) STEM degrees into a career in the field, where they’ll net unequal pay and less recognition. In fact, women are twice as likely to end up working in the lower-paying fields of education or healthcare with their STEM degree. Underneath this are the unconscious bias against female applicants and early ingraining of gender stereotypes.
Despite the frustrating gender dynamics at play for women in the STEM field, the biggest reason for the gender gap is too few are. Two recent studies recommend to get more women into the STEM door, widen the entrance: address narrow stereotypes about the field.
Gender, Science, and the “Brilliance” Factor
Recent research published in Science by Leslie and Cimpian found that in academia women are underrepresented in fields across science and humanities that value innate brilliance and morerepresented in those that value hard work and dedication.
Why? Because our culture still implicitly links raw, innate talent/genius/inborn ability/brilliance with men and not women.
As the Washington Post put it, “The difference between Sherlock Holmes and Hermione Granger may help explain why women don’t thrive as much as men in some fields of academia. One is brilliant by nature and the other has to work her butt off, and they represent the pervasive gender stereotypes of our age.“
Across 1,800 academics from 30 different disciplines, academia participants rated the importance of having “an innate gift or talent” or “a special aptitude that just can’t be taught” to succeed in their field versus the value of “motivation and sustained effort.” The study found the implicit emphasis put on brilliance as a success criteria predicted under-representation of women far better than other tested hypotheses. The findings extended to African-American representation, too.
The researchers clarified there’s no convincing evidence that men and women differ in capacity for brilliance, and the study can’t validate it’s actual importance in the field. “The argument is about the culture of the field,” Cimpian said. “In our current cultural climate, where women are stereotypically seen as less likely to possess these special intellectual gifts, emphasizing that those gifts are required for success is going to have a differential effect on men and women.”
Researcher Leslie shared, “Consider for example how difficult it is to think of even a single pop-culture portrayal of a woman who like Sherlock Holmes (& others)…displays that special spark of innate, unschooled genius.”
Field-specific success beliefs conspire with long-held gender stereotypes. “Any group that’s stereotyped to lack a trait that a field values is going to be underrepresented in that field,” Cimpian said.
While the gender stereotype around brilliance may be infuriating, the researchers recommend it’s the stereotype around the discipline that can easily change: downplay the importance of innate brilliance and reflect all excellence requires hard work.
“These findings suggest that academics who wish to increase the diversity of their fields should pay particular attention to the messages they send about what’s required for success,” said Leslie.
Culture Stereotypes & Computer Science
Dove-tailing the recommendation, a new research paper from Cheryan, Master, and Meltzoff asserts that to open the gates to computer science and engineering wider for women, diversify the gatekeeper stereotypes about the culture of these fields.
The article reports, “Computer science and engineering are stereotyped in modern American culture as male-oriented fields that involve social isolation, an intense focus on machinery, and inborn brilliance. These stereotypes are compatible with qualities that are typically more valued in men than women in American culture. As a result, when computer science and engineering stereotypes are salient, girls report less interest in these fields than their male peers.”
The authors acknowledge that many social constraints keep women from engineering and computer science. But they found that diversifying the way these fields are represented – the kind of people, the nature of the work, and values of the field – changes young women’s sense of interest and belonging in the field.
With no direct experience of the field, stereotypes and media representations are often what students have to go on, and they are tight and narrow. Picture a white, geeky, tech-focused, socially awkward but intellectually brilliant, pale-skinned guy with glasses who sleeps and eats science and works on his own. The researchers say cultural stereotypes like this “are perceived as incompatible with qualities that are valued in women, such as being feminine, people-oriented, and modest about one’s abilities.” Women don’t feel they belong to the culture.
The researchers argue that diversifying and broadening the stereotypes (rather than getting rid of them as they also positively draw people) attracts more women to computer science and engineering by enabling them to identify more with the fields, without deflecting male interest.
One opportunity to widen image is in media, which strongly impacts upon stereotypes. In one study women who read articles that computer science was breaking away from stereotypes were more interested in the field than those who read an article confirming them, whereas men’s interest was not affected.
A second opportunity to widen image is in more diverse exposure to the people in the field. In a previous study, Cheryan found that women’s interest was positively influenced when they interviewed a computer scientist who had non-stereotypical appearance (plain t-shirt) and preferences (eg enjoys socializing), regardless of their gender. In fact, the experience increased women’s sense they could succeed in the field compared to women who interviewed with the stereotype. Men’s sense they could succeed was not affected.
The researchers noted, “When the people in computer science depict themselves in a manner consistent with the stereotypes, it can convey to other students that one must fit the stereotypes to be successful in these fields.”
A third opportunity to widen image is around workenvironments, which reflect dominant cultural values. The researchers previously found that young women who were exposed to a room with non-stereotypical objects (nature posters vs. Star Trek, water bottles vs. soda cans, neutral books vs. science fiction books) were far more likely to express interest in pursuing computer science than those that visited a stereotypical room. This represents a sense of “ambient” belonging.
The researchers point out that while these sciences remain male-dominated cultures in which women do face obstacles, “A broader image that shows many different types of people and working environments in computer science and engineering actually represents a more realistic portrayal.” Diversifying representation of computer science helped increased female enrolment in certain universities.
Going beyond narrow cultural stereotypes in STEM widens the door to girls and women. And as more women dare to enter it, the culture will likely, if slowly, evolve too.
By Aimee Hansen
Voice of Experience: Reena Agrawal Sahni, Partner, Shearman & Sterling LLP
Voices of ExperienceAs early as her first job after law school, clerking for Judge Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Sahni found such a mentor and exemplar. “Working with someone of that caliber who was excellent at everything he did, but did it with ease, grace and good humor, gave me a model for how I wanted to conduct myself professionally,” she recalls.
After the clerkship, Sahni spent several years in private practice, gaining experience in a variety of corporate practices, such as bankruptcy, capital markets, M&A, internal investigations, and bank regulatory issues, and in the latter found a niche that was especially fascinating. “I found that the bank regulatory practice was the perfect mix of transactional, academic, and advisory work. It never gets boring because it is so client focused. It is all about the clients’ needs regardless of where that takes you,” she says.
Sahni then spent two years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in New York, where she led investigations into securities fraud. She says moving from private practice to the government was especially gratifying, where again she was fortunate to benefit from the example of hard work in the service of the public interest set by her colleagues at the agency.
Expertise in Demand
That experience was cut short when the financial crisis hit in 2008. The financial regulatory landscape changed dramatically, and with her bank regulatory expertise much in demand, she returned to firm work, focusing on Dodd-Frank-related developments.
In August 2014, she joined Shearman & Sterling as a partner in the Financial Institutions Advisory & Financial Regulatory practice. Much of her work is with foreign clients who are dealing with U.S. regulations, an aspect of the work that she finds endlessly interesting. “We are really helping clients solve problems and accomplish their business objectives in a heightened regulatory environment,” she explains. “The industry as a whole has been undergoing a seismic shift in regulation and supervision, and it is an exciting time to be practicing in this area. Significant policy questions about what the regulatory framework should look like are still being debated. I feel fortunate to be a part of that debate.”
Reflections on Women in the Legal Field
Reflecting on her career, Sahni says that she wishes she had appreciated how much value she was bringing to clients by working hard and being creative, even in her early years. “As a junior associate, there can be a tendency to underestimate your contributions, especially when you’re working with so many experienced people,” she says. She encourages others to realize their worth and the significant value they bring to the table.
Sahni advises women entering the industry to seek outpeople who they admire and on whom they’d like to pattern their careers. “Be bold and learn from their experiences,” she says. “They’ll be willing to talk to young lawyers about how they progressed, and even though everyone figures out on their own what works for them, you can learn a lot by inquiring about the paths others have taken.”
She herself has learned a lot from the women she considers her mentors and peers, noting, “I’m constantly inspired by the way that the women I meet manage their careers.”
Though relatively new to Shearman & Sterling, she has been impressed with the level of commitment that the firm has to women and diversity in general. She’s currently involved with the women partners’ group, where they share best practices for how to connect with clients in different ways.
Having a one-year-old and a five-year-old at home doesn’t leave Sahni much time for hobbies, but she tries to balance her passion for her work with time with her family. “I was concerned on our last family vacation when our five-year-old wanted to stay up late writing my work emails for me,” she says, laughing. “But I was proud of the example my husband and I are trying to set for her and her sister to work hard and accomplish your goals.”
Voice of Experience: Leslie McNamara Managing Director, Partnership Management, Citi Retail Services
Voices of ExperienceMcNamara has been in her current role since 2011, providing strategic direction and oversight for Citi Retail Services’ private label and co-brand credit card programs. She has spent the past 30 years either in or serving financial institutions in consumer lending business lines.
Early on she heard the career advice to “follow the money,” and she took it to heart, aligning herself with revenue-producing P and L management roles, with work that has been rooted in relationship management. In her current role she works closely with Citi Retail Services’ “partners” — the retailers the business represents. This requires a clear understanding of what drives sales for retailers and how credit programs contribute to the bottom line.
Despite earning impressive career wins, McNamara always focuses on her future potential and what she will deliver to the business. “I prefer to look through the windshield rather than in the rear view mirror,” she says, adding that there are two times professionals should reflect on their past: when translating experiences to qualifications for new roles and when self-assessing at the end of the year. Even then, she feels that while annual reviews might incorporate a retrospective, the summary should focus on how you will apply what you’ve done to your next stage. “Your biggest career achievement should be what you are going to do next week or next month and not what you’ve done in the past,” she says.
Using Research to Benefit Retail Partners
Currently, McNamara is enjoying her involvement with a series of projects and initiatives supporting the engagement of millennials in the business. One particular project involves collaborating with the human resources group to define best practices around proactively hiring and creating an environment that nurtures millennials and shows them the fulfilling career paths available at Citi.
And, she is sponsoring a complementary project with students from the University of Arizona’s Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing that mines Citi data and solicits insights into how millennials are thinking about shopping and how they differ from previous generations. Among the findings have been that millennials might be a little delayed in their spend behaviors but ultimately look similar to previous generations.
“Citi Retail Services has a vast repository of information and ancillary data sources that allow us to be uniquely positioned to probe to find patterns. Our goal is to provide this value to our retailer partners. We want to help them supplement their own research and understand trends in the future of retail and how our business can capitalize on them.”
Other findings include that the economy has fundamentally changed since the Great Recession, including not only enormous shifts in the regulatory environment but also generational thinking about relationships with credit.
“There’s a new face to U.S. consumerism based on where we buy and how we pay,” she says, “and we have to understand spending trends and the future of retail, including issues the credit industry will face as we work to help our retailer partners be successful with strategies that address loyalty and media placement, for example.”
The Shift in Role Models
When McNamara began her career, there was a dearth of female role models. “I wasn’t able to see others who had successful career patterns, but I’ve seen a big shift in the past five to 10 years, both within Citi and throughout the industry.” Now she says she sees women who head up businesses and hold significant titles. “I can envision that success for myself, and I know that other generations can see it too. There has been a significant shift in the pipeline toward a more equitabledistribution of candidates.”
She suggests that young women starting their careers need to be more willing to take risks and display more confidence in their abilities. And she believes that women at her level need to continue to focus on advocacy and pulling others through.
One caveat she has for millennial women starting out is that they come from a different perspective where their surroundings have been more equitable and they haven’t been exposed to noticeable gender differences. However, as they join a multi-generational workplace, they might be surprised to find a different mindset and realize that it is still important to make connections with women’s networks or diversity networks. “Younger women need to understand how to navigate workplaces that might not reflect their previous experiences with gender parity.”
McNamara has been active in Citi’s programs for women at various points in her career with the company. Early on, she participated in the Women Leading Citi program when it was just forming and has seen firsthand its value in networking and opportunities among graduates. “The mentoring and advisory components have been very powerful to me, and I have also benefitted from seeing other women I’ve sponsored and mentored succeed.” Motivated by the company’s efforts, she recently became executive sponsor for the local Citi Women’s network at her site in Wilmington.
Diva Worthy
McNamara readily acknowledges her husband, whom she calls her “life partner,” chose to be a work at home dad to help support her travel schedule. “I simply couldn’t have had this career path without him,” she says. She has a 20-year-old son, an Eagle Scout who is currently a junior at High Point University. “He frequently reminds me that everything I encounter is a first-world problem,” she says with a laugh.
And, she just enjoyed one of the highlights of her year: the annual “Diva Weekend,” which includes a cadre of women who have worked together over the years. The multi-generational group is composed of different life stages, from a newlywed to a couple of grandmas. “This long weekend is the perfect combination of personal and professional advice, food and fun, and it is inspirational through and through.”
Will Millennial Women Climb the Ladder Differently to Other Generations?
PipelineAccording to Census figures, there are 60 million Millennials in America, and 30 million of those are women. Keywords describing the generation have been ‘ambitious,’ ‘optimistic,’ and ‘dedicated.’
Read more
Voice of Experience: Leann Balbona, Managing Director, Tax – Global Mobility Services, KPMG
People, Voices of ExperienceThat has been key to the ascension Balbona has achieved in her career, which she describes as both interesting and rewarding. Currently a Managing Director with KPMG’s equity tax practice, she has traveled around the world and worked in five different countries on projects. “The ability to be creative has always been important to me because of my natural curiosity so it’s been wonderful to have had so many opportunities.”
One of those opportunities that helped shape her career was being asked 15 years ago to be a team lead on an important IT projectto help build a web application from the ground up. Web technology was just emerging, and this role offered the chance to learn more about using this new technology to automate international tax processes and assignment management. After developing the application, she was able to spend three years on the road, traveling throughout Asia, Europe and North America to meet with corporate clients and discuss how they could use it to enhance their businesses and better manage mobile employee populations. To this day, some of KPMG’s largest clients, as well as the internal KPMG teams, use this technology to manage their mobility programs and deliver services.
Now, as Balbona is one of the leaders in the rapidly growing Global Incentive Compensation Services, a business in KPMG’s Global Mobility Services Tax practice, she finds it particularly rewarding to build a team, create efficient processes and deliver a service offering that truly helps clients become more tax compliant in delivery of equity awards to their employees around the world.
A great way to give back is to serve on boards.Balbona has served as a leader of KPMG’s New York office’s Network of Women for five years. This leadership experience with one of the firm’s largest offices helped position her for her current role as a board member of the Global Equity Organization (GEO), a non-profit trade organization.In this position, she helps guide the organization, which serves the equity industry from an educational and trade perspective on best practices and industry trends. “The current regulatory pressure and enhanced emphasis on corporate governance means that companies must be ever vigilant and focused on mitigating risk, especially since the mobile workforce can create unintended liabilities and multiple tax obligations. It’s more important than ever to proactively address and properly report tax obligations in an efficient manner to avoid unplanned costs for the company,” she says.
Advice for Early Careerists
Balbona’s experience underscores that “Big Four” firms are a great place to start and build a career, with their emphasis on a strong foundation in accounting, tax and advisory with a focus on both classroom and on-the -job training and advancement. There’s also a high potential for challenging and unique assignments including international assignments or projects, which are important opportunities to take advantage of early in a career. “The skills you learn at a Big Four firm will pay dividends throughout your career.”
She also believes that while mentors are important, sponsors play an even more vital role as you move up the chain. “I can’t emphasize the impact of having someone watching out for you, offering opportunities and championing you when you are not in the room.”
Building a strong network is key and it doesn’t happen without effort. Balbona urges professionals to build personal contacts by getting out of the office for lunch, coffee or networking events. “Others are more willing to help you if they know you on a personal level,” she says.
A Progressive Work Force
Over the years, Balbona has seen an evolution in policies and perspective that has increasingly led to the retention of high-performing men and women. She has seen that achieving work/life balance is increasingly important to all professionals. “Here in the 21st century, where technology has allowed so much more flexibility in our industry for alternative work arrangements, such as working remotely, I don’t feel as though there are gender-based issues.”
Despite these advances, Balbona sees the value of women’s networks after spending five years leading the chapter in the New York office. “It was a great way to give back to the organization and mentor our women professionals while developing programs to help them become better leaders,” she said, adding that she was able to meet people she otherwise wouldn’t have met, who have served important roles over the course of her career.
While there, she helped pilot and roll out a program that is already having an impact on retention. Intended to help younger professionals manage their career and life choices, it provides a framework for evaluating their progress and then setting actionable goals and priorities.
She also recently completed a one-year program at the Executive Leadership Institute for senior women, which was led by an external coaching firm and attended by both KPMG partners and managing directors, as well as those from equivalent levels from other companies. She found that mix provided an interesting perspective and the skills she learned have already enhanced her leadership.
At Home and Around the World
Close to home, Balbona supports Harlem RBI and YWCA and enjoys walking her dog in Central Park. She also loves traveling with her husband and meeting people in other cultures around the world. “Journeys come in all shapes and sizes, and you can learn from all of them, whether you’re at home or abroad.”
By Cathie Ericson
Biotech: Where are the women on boards?
Women in TechnologyRead more
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Movers and ShakersYou Can Be the CEO, It Just Takes Longer as a Woman
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Bumps in the road. What happens when things go temporarily wrong at work?
Career Tip of the Week!What do you do in this situation? You are faced with a choice of how to recover. Yes, how to recover as there are many emotions and thoughts involved with this type of situation. The best thing you can do is let go of any negative emotion ( anger, bitterness etc) and list what you enjoyed most and what you enjoyed least about both the job itself and the company culture. This will help you figure out what is next for you, professionally!
Voice of Experience: Sinead Strain, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs
Voices of Experience“It’s vital that our industry shows girls the diversity of roles on offer, and lets them see how technology skills can open the door to virtually any industry,” says Strain. “There’s a wide spectrum of opportunities, and learning about tech gives girls the foundational skills they need to succeed wherever they decide to go. It’s a skill that’s transferable.”
For Strain, it’s important to make it clear to women entering the industry that their choice isn’t to stay in or opt out, but rather that they can always try something new.
And that’s what has kept Strain moving up the ladder in her career. After graduating from Dublin City University, she participated in a work placement with Microsoft in Dublin. The rewarding experience taught her a variety of lessons, but one would impact her career path: she realized that she wanted to pursue her tech career in a business-facing technology role.
Strain began pursuing roles in financial services and has spent 21 years in the industry with two firms. Her first stint was at JP Morgan, and for the past 10 years she has worked at Goldman Sachs.
A career defining moment came in 2008 when Strain was named global head of FX trading and sales technology. This appointment occurred only a few weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Strain describes the experience as “baptism by fire. I literally jumped into the deep end, and it was one of those pivotal times where you have to accelerate your learning and call on the skills that you have acquired over the years.”
In 2014 Strain was named head of FICC technology. Strain acknowledges that this role was an exciting move, as she now oversees technology for the entire FICC division. Reflecting on her career, Strain names this promotion as one of the achievements she’s most proud of, and highlights the opportunities this position affords: “I love the diversity of the role and the opportunity to partner and build relationships across the firm.”
No two days are the same, as Strain balances working with her teams to drive business growth, leveraging platform solutions to support internal and external clients, and managing a diverse technology stack while investing and developing technical talent.
Her Role in the Evolving World of Tech
Strain is acutely aware of the rapid changes in tech, the disruptive nature of technology in the world at large and how financial firms have evolved by keeping up with the latest trends. She notes that Goldman Sachs leadership often refers to the firm as a technology company because of its innovation in finding technological solutions to drive growth. She cites a new platform called Marquee which will offer external clients access to its in-house tools that analyze markets and manage risk.
Fostering adoption of strategic platforms to enable the FICC business is both rewarding and progressive, says Strain. “The rate of change from a technology perspective is unprecedented and presents an exciting time to embrace and leverage these changes to enable our business and our clients.”
Similarly, this can be seen more broadly across the financial industry. “The innovative culture of startups has led to the growing dominance of FinTech and has led to the creation of disruptive technology that has influenced Wall Street,” Strain says.
The Challenge To Retain Women
Having just returned from the 2015 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, through the Anita Borg Institute, Strain says that much of the discussion at the conference surrounded retaining and promoting women in the industry. Where the focus had been on building a talent pipeline, she says that now companies need to provide an equal platform to retain women and increase the percentage of senior female role models. “We need up-and-coming women to say, ‘I want to stay in,’ because they see more senior women who have conquered the challenges, whether around work-life balance or just feeling different in the industry, who can provide the encouragement they need not to opt out.”
Strain notes that being interviewed by two senior women at Goldman Sachs was a key differentiator for her. “I knew I was coming into the right culture and that’s what I want for others,” she says.
She stresses that the positive effect female mentors have had on her career inspires her to continue to support initiatives such as Girls Who Code, where she can share the story of her own career journey to high school girls interested in technology.
Strain has always been active in Goldman Sachs’ Women in Tech network and currently is a global sponsor for the program, stressing that this type of network allows women to bolster their skills. Strain champions programs such as Leadership Development and Geek Speak, which helps women find their voice to talk openly and confidently about their tech accomplishments and develop leadership skills.
Strain also has represented Goldman Sachs on the steering committee of ABI.NY, the New York chapter of the Anita Borg Institute, since its inception two years ago. The chapter is focused on building a community of female technologists in New York City.
An avid traveler, Strain developed a passion for wildlife early on, having grown up with a father who loved wildlife.She loves to travel to places like Africa, including a recent trip to Botswana – “the more remote, the better,” she says. “I love the chance to be disconnected from the world and immerse myself in an experience that’s so different from my day-to-day life
Changing Industry Stereotypes Can Increase Women in STEM
Career Advice, Women in TechnologyPaint a picture it does. A quick glance reveals that women are represented half as much in STEM professions (25%) as they are in the workforce, while rarer yet in engineering and computer and mathematical sciences. From associates to doctorate, women are much less likely to convert their (relatively fewer) STEM degrees into a career in the field, where they’ll net unequal pay and less recognition. In fact, women are twice as likely to end up working in the lower-paying fields of education or healthcare with their STEM degree. Underneath this are the unconscious bias against female applicants and early ingraining of gender stereotypes.
Despite the frustrating gender dynamics at play for women in the STEM field, the biggest reason for the gender gap is too few are. Two recent studies recommend to get more women into the STEM door, widen the entrance: address narrow stereotypes about the field.
Gender, Science, and the “Brilliance” Factor
Recent research published in Science by Leslie and Cimpian found that in academia women are underrepresented in fields across science and humanities that value innate brilliance and morerepresented in those that value hard work and dedication.
Why? Because our culture still implicitly links raw, innate talent/genius/inborn ability/brilliance with men and not women.
As the Washington Post put it, “The difference between Sherlock Holmes and Hermione Granger may help explain why women don’t thrive as much as men in some fields of academia. One is brilliant by nature and the other has to work her butt off, and they represent the pervasive gender stereotypes of our age.“
Across 1,800 academics from 30 different disciplines, academia participants rated the importance of having “an innate gift or talent” or “a special aptitude that just can’t be taught” to succeed in their field versus the value of “motivation and sustained effort.” The study found the implicit emphasis put on brilliance as a success criteria predicted under-representation of women far better than other tested hypotheses. The findings extended to African-American representation, too.
The researchers clarified there’s no convincing evidence that men and women differ in capacity for brilliance, and the study can’t validate it’s actual importance in the field. “The argument is about the culture of the field,” Cimpian said. “In our current cultural climate, where women are stereotypically seen as less likely to possess these special intellectual gifts, emphasizing that those gifts are required for success is going to have a differential effect on men and women.”
Researcher Leslie shared, “Consider for example how difficult it is to think of even a single pop-culture portrayal of a woman who like Sherlock Holmes (& others)…displays that special spark of innate, unschooled genius.”
Field-specific success beliefs conspire with long-held gender stereotypes. “Any group that’s stereotyped to lack a trait that a field values is going to be underrepresented in that field,” Cimpian said.
While the gender stereotype around brilliance may be infuriating, the researchers recommend it’s the stereotype around the discipline that can easily change: downplay the importance of innate brilliance and reflect all excellence requires hard work.
“These findings suggest that academics who wish to increase the diversity of their fields should pay particular attention to the messages they send about what’s required for success,” said Leslie.
Culture Stereotypes & Computer Science
Dove-tailing the recommendation, a new research paper from Cheryan, Master, and Meltzoff asserts that to open the gates to computer science and engineering wider for women, diversify the gatekeeper stereotypes about the culture of these fields.
The article reports, “Computer science and engineering are stereotyped in modern American culture as male-oriented fields that involve social isolation, an intense focus on machinery, and inborn brilliance. These stereotypes are compatible with qualities that are typically more valued in men than women in American culture. As a result, when computer science and engineering stereotypes are salient, girls report less interest in these fields than their male peers.”
The authors acknowledge that many social constraints keep women from engineering and computer science. But they found that diversifying the way these fields are represented – the kind of people, the nature of the work, and values of the field – changes young women’s sense of interest and belonging in the field.
With no direct experience of the field, stereotypes and media representations are often what students have to go on, and they are tight and narrow. Picture a white, geeky, tech-focused, socially awkward but intellectually brilliant, pale-skinned guy with glasses who sleeps and eats science and works on his own. The researchers say cultural stereotypes like this “are perceived as incompatible with qualities that are valued in women, such as being feminine, people-oriented, and modest about one’s abilities.” Women don’t feel they belong to the culture.
The researchers argue that diversifying and broadening the stereotypes (rather than getting rid of them as they also positively draw people) attracts more women to computer science and engineering by enabling them to identify more with the fields, without deflecting male interest.
One opportunity to widen image is in media, which strongly impacts upon stereotypes. In one study women who read articles that computer science was breaking away from stereotypes were more interested in the field than those who read an article confirming them, whereas men’s interest was not affected.
A second opportunity to widen image is in more diverse exposure to the people in the field. In a previous study, Cheryan found that women’s interest was positively influenced when they interviewed a computer scientist who had non-stereotypical appearance (plain t-shirt) and preferences (eg enjoys socializing), regardless of their gender. In fact, the experience increased women’s sense they could succeed in the field compared to women who interviewed with the stereotype. Men’s sense they could succeed was not affected.
The researchers noted, “When the people in computer science depict themselves in a manner consistent with the stereotypes, it can convey to other students that one must fit the stereotypes to be successful in these fields.”
A third opportunity to widen image is around workenvironments, which reflect dominant cultural values. The researchers previously found that young women who were exposed to a room with non-stereotypical objects (nature posters vs. Star Trek, water bottles vs. soda cans, neutral books vs. science fiction books) were far more likely to express interest in pursuing computer science than those that visited a stereotypical room. This represents a sense of “ambient” belonging.
The researchers point out that while these sciences remain male-dominated cultures in which women do face obstacles, “A broader image that shows many different types of people and working environments in computer science and engineering actually represents a more realistic portrayal.” Diversifying representation of computer science helped increased female enrolment in certain universities.
Going beyond narrow cultural stereotypes in STEM widens the door to girls and women. And as more women dare to enter it, the culture will likely, if slowly, evolve too.
By Aimee Hansen