Myths and Obstacles girls and young women

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Myths and Obstaclesgirls and young women

• Monique Frize
• Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton
  University
• and School of Information Technology and
  Engineering, University of Ottawa

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Myths... 4 points

• Like legends, some people believe in them, but
  they do not represent reality.
• People feel comfortable believing in them, or
  prefer to accept what the myth represents,
  especially if it fits their own views.
• It is easier to maintain beliefs in myths that
  support the status quo than to challenge
  long-held beliefs and change patterns of
  behaviour to build a world of equality and
  opportunity for everyone.
• Debunking myths and legends can make us
  uncomfortable and uneasy, but the clarification
  can help to make the world a better place.

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Myth no 1

• Gender stereotypes have disappeared and no longer
  limit career choice for girls (and boys)

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Baumgartner-Papageorgiou 1982, 1992

• What the girls said
• They could be calm and cool, not allowed to
  express their true feelings, be rowdy, macho,
  smart-alecky, show-off more, and would be valued
  by their parents.
• Jobs Professional athletes, construction
  workers, engineers, pilots, forest rangers, and
  sportscasters.
• "their lives would be better economically and
  status-wise, and they would enjoy more freedom,
  and have a better time, with less responsibility.

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Baumgartner-Papageorgiou 1982, 1992

• What the boys said
• they must be beautiful, know how to put make-up
  on, no one would be interested in their brain,
  and they were not sure if they would be
  appreciated by their parents.
• Jobs Secretary, social worker, model, airline
  stewardess, and prostitute.

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Myra and David Sadker 1994

• Upper-elementary and middle school students from
  twenty-four classrooms in Maryland, Virginia, and
  Washington DC (US) to write an essay about waking
  up as a member of the other sex.
• A twelve-year old girl When I grow up, I will
  be able to be almost anything I want, including
  governor and president of the United States.
• People will listen to what I have to say and
  will take me seriously. I will have a secretary
  to do things for me. I will make more money now
  that I am a boy.
• Another said I would feel more on top. I guess
  thats what a lot of boys feel.

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What boys wrote

• Most found the thought of being a girl appalling,
  disgusting, humiliating it was completely
  unacceptable.
• One sixth grade boy said If I were a girl, my
  friends would treat me like dirt.
• Some even mentioned suicide if they woke up as a
  girl.
• Early socialisation can marks boys and girls with
  stereotypes some boys learn early to disrespect
  girls and women.

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Gender Socialization, New Ways, New World
Rebecca Coulter, 1993

• Study on how sex stereotypes are constructed
  early in life it describes how sexist attitudes
  and behaviours occur at home and at school, from
  birth to adolescence.
• How parents often display attitudes and
  expectations that differ for male and female
  children with respect to achievement in
  mathematics and science.
• Many sexist attitudes are so entrenched that they
  have even become unconscious and unnoticed.
• This partly explains why many girls still
  under-estimate their abilities in mathematics and
  science in spite of the fact that they currently
  perform as well as boys.

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Myth no 2 Boys are better in mathematics
and science than girls.

• Scores compared between boys and girls in
  kindergarten, grade one, and grade five in the
  US, Taiwan, and Japan
• US was always in third place in almost every one
  of the nine sub components of the mathematical
  tests, and never scored first.
• Regarding sex differences, Japanese girls scored
  higher on all sub components than US boys.
• Factors like motivation, schooling, and other
  environmental influences are more likely
  responsible for the small differences where they
  exist. (Valian, 2000, 85-86)

10
Hyde et al. On gender performance in math

• For grades 2 to 11, the general population no
  longer shows a gender difference in math skills,
  consistent with the gender similarities
  hypothesis.
• There is evidence of slightly greater male
  variability in scores, although the causes remain
  unexplained.
• Gender differences in math performance, even
  among high scorers, are insufficient to explain
  lopsided gender patterns in participation in some
  STEM fields. (Hyde et al., 2008, 495)
•  

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Ontario study, 1993

• Girls were doing better than boys in the
  provincial exams in mathematics by at least four
  percentage points, and in all classes of grades
  three, six, and eight.
• In grade 3, 58 percent of boys and 46 percent of
  girls thought they were good at mathematics.
• In grade 8, 35 of girls and 58 of boys.
  (Schmidt, 1997)
• Building a positive self-esteem and confidence in
  girls will contribute to improving their actual
  performance and make them realize that these
  subjects can be natural choices for them.

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Other issues

• Sexual Harassment high school girls speak out
  (June Larkin, 1994).
• Computer games and technology courses. Gender
  Inclusive Game DesignExpanding the Market
  (Graner Ray, 2003).
• Social relevance.

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Graner Ray found...

• Gender approaches differ in game play preference.
• She provides suggestions for designers to create
  games that appeal to girls.
• She cites three main areas of gender variance
• 1. Males respond most to visual stimuli, females
  to emotion and touch.
• 2. Males like to tackle conflicts head-to-head,
  while females prefer compromise, diplomacy,
  negotiation and manipulation.
• 3. Males tend to be satisfied with visual
  rewards, but females require emotional
  resolution.

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Other issues

• Social relevance in curriculum
• Careers that help people
• Multidisciplinary fields
• Teaching styles

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Myth "The occurrence of sexual harassment has
been exaggerated. There really isn't a problem."

• Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual
  favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of
  a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when
  any one of the following is true
• Submission to such conduct is made either
  explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of a
  persons employment or academic advancement
• submission to or rejection of such conduct by an
  individual is used as a basis for employment
  decisions or academic decisions affecting the
  person.

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Potential Impact

• Such conduct has the purpose or effect of
  unreasonably interfering with a person's work or
  academic performance or creating an intimidating,
  hostile, or offensive working, learning, or
  social environment. (Sandler Shoop, 1997, 4)

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Three characteristics

• The behaviour is unwanted or unwelcome.
• The behaviour is sexual or related to the sex or
  gender of the person.
• The behaviour occurs in context of a relationship
  where one person has more formal power than the
  other, or more informal power.
• (Sandler and Shoop, 1997, 5)

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Examples of power relationships

• A work supervisor and an employee
• a faculty member and a student
• a physician and a patient.
• An informal power relationship exists where one
  peer or colleague, while nominally equal in the
  hierarchy, exerts an influence over another.

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A study (1992) women chemical engineersby
Caruana and Mascone

• At least 67 women in a plant and 57 percent of
  women in an office had suffered some type of
  harassment during their career.
• Women who had been harassed had a completely
  different perception about harassment than those
  who claimed never having been harassed.
• 51 percent of women who responded that they had
  been harassed thought this was a common
  occurrence 47 percent of this group felt it was
  an occasional occurrence and 2 percent thought
  this was rare.
• Only 4 percent of women who claimed never having
  been harassed thought this was a common
  occurrence 69 percent thought it was occasional
  and 27 percent saw this as rare.

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Frize article (1995)

• Harassment frequently occurs for reasons other
  than sexual favours
• It is a question of power and domination.
• Harassment can take the form of backlash, to
  unhinge women or discourage them from working in
  a male-dominated environment.
• Treating women as a sexual object or making
  sexist remarks can make some women feel they do
  not belong and may discourage them to remain in
  the field.

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Awards and prizes

• In 9 decades, 9 women won a Nobel Prize (one
  woman received 2).
• Women constitute 2 of Nobel Laureates since its
  inception.
• The last three were given to women in the 1980s,
  many years after their work had been done they
  were bypassed for many years and thus were much
  older when they were finally recognised.
• Men who won these prizes were in general of
  similar age as the peers who evaluated them.
  Younger men have also won, providing them with
  cash resources that freed them from financial
  concerns to do their work.
• This seemed to arrive somewhat late for the women
  who were selected for the Prize. (Rose, 1994,
  137)

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Myth of meritocracy double standards

• In Lifting a Ton of Feathers
• Paula Caplan discusses myths in academia and in
  particular the myth of meritocracy.
• She argues that faculty women in male-dominated
  fields are more likely than other faculty women
  to believe in the myth that people are rewarded
  according to the merit of their work, either in
  terms of a promotion, for tenure, for an award or
  a prize.

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She writes

• Many of us find it painful to recognize that
  making a place for ourselves in the academy can
  involve putting on shows of various kinds, being
  in the right places, saying the right things,
  knowing the right people. We long to have our
  work speak for itself. (Caplan, 1993, 48)

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Caplan concludes

• The insidious and misguided implication (of the
  belief in that myth) is that all men working in
  academia were hired solely on the basis of merit,
  without networks, friendships and so on. A
  related (and erroneous) implication is that when
  women are not hired, it is only because their
  work isnt good enough. (Caplan, 1993, 49)

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Rossiter 1982 NRC Fellowships

• Between 1920 and 1938, 487 women were awarded a
  PhD but only 4 received the fellowship in
  chemistry.
• In physics, it was even lower, with 86 women PhDs
  and 2 NRC fellows.
• Zoology had 395 women obtaining a PhD and 14
  winning a fellowship.
• Men won 98 percent of fellowships in chemistry,
  99 percent in physics, and 89 percent of these in
  zoology.

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Rossiter adds

• NRC did not even consider the possibility that an
  all-male selection committee could have been
  biased and concluded that the female candidates
  were weak and undeserving. (Rossiter, 1982, 271)
  
• Women faced a deliberately negative reception
  from foundation officials, who were twice as
  skeptical of their abilities as they were of male
  applicants.
• The women had to compete not only against the
  other applicants but also against the selection
  committees stereotypes of womens abilities.
  (Rossiter, 1982, 271)

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Geis, Carter, and Butler (1986)

• Found that, for a male administrator frequently
  failing to complete his work, the perception was
  that the job was too heavy, that he needed an
  assistant, and thus more responsibility and
  salary.
• For a female administrator frequently failing to
  complete her work, the perception was that she
  was incompetent, could not handle the job, and
  that she needed a less responsible (and less
  salaried) position.

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Sonnert and Holton

• In spite of 20 affirmative action in these
  fields, the glass ceiling was still very present.
  
• Of the 29 women and 27 men who were hired in
  the top fifteen percent of academic institutions
  in the US, women paid the price in terms of a
  disadvantaged rank The average offer to the
  women was one full rank below the average offer
  to men (assistant professor for women, and
  associate professor for men).

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More...

• Nearly three-quarters of the women (73 percent)
  said they had experienced some form of
  discrimination (denial of job or of tenure) 13
  percent of the men said they had experienced
  reverse discrimination.

30
More...

• Women mentioned experiencing subtle exclusions
  and marginalisation. As for opportunities for
  collaborative work, women said this occurred when
  they were to be in a subordinate role, but much
  less when an equal partnership role was sought.
  In the same study, on the potential influence of
  gender on their research, a number of men and
  women agreed that gender played a role.

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Did gender influence choice of research topic?

• 40 women and 16 men agreed that it did
• 36 women and 20 men thought gender influenced
  ways of thinking and research methods.
• Re publications, women felt they were more
  thorough in their articles and this would result
  in the production of a lower number of papers.
• The average number of papers per year for women
  was 2.3, and for men, 2.8.

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Measuring performance

• But the average number of citations for women's
  papers was 24.4 per paper, and 14.4 for men's
  papers. (Sonnert and Holton, 1996)
• This suggests that measuring performance and
  output of academics should look at quality
  instead of quantity of work accomplished.
  (Sonnert and Holton, 1996)

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Myth "When women get married and have a baby,
they abandon their career or become less
committed to it.

• 1998 OIQ Average leave for women and for men
  was not significantly different reasons for the
  leave taken by the men differed from those taken
  by women.
• Men had taken an average of three weeks for
  parental leave and the women several months
  other men took a long leave for reasons related
  to lifestyle.
• A previous study by a large engineering employer
  in 1991 showed that parental leaves were taken
  only by women.

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Changing times

• In seven years, several more men participated in
  parental care.
• The same firm also ruled out maternity as a
  factor for women leaving their job.
• Some women engineers do leave, especially if they
  are working in a hostile environment which may
  coincide with a pregnancy, but the main factor
  for leaving would be a poisoned or a negative
  atmosphere at their workplace.
• Several women said they may as well take care of
  their baby until they can find a better employer.
  After a career break, these women often
  re-entered the job market in a different firm
  (CCWE 1992).

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Graduate studies

• 1995 story (2 young professors in engineering)
• MIT 1996, 1997, and 1998

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Breaking with Tradition, Felice Schwartz (1962)

• Pattern of work for men and women in 1962, and in
  1992.
• Between 1946 and 1964, the fertility rate was 3.7
  births per woman.
• Average working pattern for women in 1962 was
  full-time (22-25) career break to raise a family
  (25-35) half time (35-45) full-time until
  retirement.
• Men worked full time without career breaks.

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1992 picture is quite different

• Schwartz shows women on average a half-time break
  (30-35) and worked full time for the rest of
  their career.
• Men showed a similar pattern of working half time
  for a five year period, but that occurred later,
  (60-65).

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Schwartz 1992 writes

• Before she has a baby, todays woman has chosen a
  career, trained for it, gained substantial
  experience, and given her employer ample time to
  assess the quality of her performance. By that
  time, if shes good and seriously motivated, she
  is a highly valued, seasoned professional in whom
  the company has made a substantial investment.
  (Schwartz, 1992, 55-70)

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Double standards and potential biases in criteria
for judging excellence -
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A major obstacle ...

• In general, womens contributions and abilities
  are LESS valued than mens.

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Womens contributions and abilities are less
valued than mens

• Affects
• Hiring, promotions, salary
• Retention
• Awards, scholarships, prizes, Chairs
• Royal Society membership, fellowships ...
• Grants and grant size
• Publications
• Decision-making roles

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Womens contributions and abilities are less
valued than mens

• Evidence Sweden
• Women needed 2.5 more productivity to receive
  same award (postdoctoral fellowship in biomedical
  sciences) Wenneras and Wold, Nature, 2000

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Womens contributions and abilities are less
valued than mens

• Evidence In Canada
• 2000 Research Chairs --overwhelmingly awarded to
  men, much less to women than the available pool

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Womens contributions and abilities are less
valued than mens

• Evidence USA, top 15 Universities
• Study of outstanding NRC scholars on average,
  women appointed as Assistant professor, men
  Associate professor Sonnert and Holton, 1996

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Womens contributions and abilities are less
valued than mens

• Evidence
• MIT Survey Women had smaller offices, labs,
  salaries, and recognition
• Survey is needed in every university

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Time will NOT fix this

• The history of women in science has NOT been
  characterized by a march of progress but by
  cycles of advancement and retrenchment.
• Womens situation has changed along with social
  conditions, climates of opinion and royal
  leadership.
• Has Feminism Changed Science, p. 32,

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Strategies for 21st CenturySociety

• Sensitise women and men on valuing and respecting
  womens contributions and abilities
• Empower girls and women to believe in themselves,
  be the best they can be
• Mentoring, networking and support throughout
  years
• Continue major efforts not to lose ground

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Strategies schools and parents

• Increase the profile of successful women
• Increase contact with students
• Demystify various disciplines, show human
  connection
• Male role models who support progress and share
  family and household responsibilities

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Conclusion

• Challenge the world to a NEW VISION of Womens
  Role and Contributions in a Knowledge-based
  Society