Agenda

Abstract

Although women are generally underrepresented relative to men in STEM throughout the world, there is considerable cross-nation and cross-regional variability in gender gaps, and the reasons for such variability remain poorly understood. Notably, women are much better represented in STEM in countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region compared to other parts of the world, even when the region is otherwise characterized by gender inequality and conservative attitudes toward women’s roles. Many Western-focused social psychological theories would predict that women should be especially underrepresented in a cultural context such as the MENA region — and yet, the statistics defy such expectations. For example, 56 percent of the STEM graduates at public universities in the United Arab Emirates are women. To illuminate this seeming paradox, we conducted a systematic literature review to integrate the scant research on gender stereotyping and bias in majority Muslim countries in the MENA region with the goal of identifying new directions for theory and research seeking to better understand variability in gender gaps in STEM across the globe.

Abstract

The so-called “gender-equality paradox” is the fact that gender segregation across occupations is more pronounced in more egalitarian and more developed countries. Some scholars have explained this paradox by the existence of deeply rooted or intrinsic gender differences in preferences that materialize more easily in countries where economic constraints are more limited. In line with a strand of research in sociology, we show instead that it can be explained by cross-country differences in essentialist gender norms regarding math aptitudes and appropriate occupational choices. To this aim, we propose a measure of the prevalence and extent of internalization of the stereotype that “math is not for girls” at the country level. This is done using individual-level data on the math attitudes of 300,000 15-year-old female and male students in 64 countries. The stereotype associating math to men is stronger in more egalitarian and developed countries. It is also strongly associated with various measures of female underrepresentation in math-intensive fields and can therefore entirely explain the gender-equality paradox. We suggest that economic development and gender equality in rights go hand-in-hand with a reshaping rather than a suppression of gender norms, with the emergence of new and more horizontal forms of social differentiation across genders.

Abstract

The virtual ‘Center for Women & Leadership (MENA)’ was originally conceived as a qualitative research initiative, a series of face-to-face interviews. The birth of that initiative became a website, a platform for women to share their stories of achievement. As our investigation on gender equality grew, so the environment became a portal of professional development materials for women, teachers and trainers. This exploration of theory to practice has matured into a 3D, asynchronous, interactive, online, multimedia experience. This presentation investigates how theory became practice to ameliorate gender gaps for societal impact.

Abstract

A few fundamental social motivations guide people’s cognition and behavior across a wide range of social contexts. I am interested in how three social motives—the pursuit of belonging, competence, and meaning — influence young people’s educational and career trajectories. By leveraging theory-driven insights about these social motives, my collaborators and I design interventions and test their efficacy in attracting and nurturing the success of young people who have been historically marginalized in STEM. In this talk I will share a series of longitudinal and cross-sectional field and lab experiments testing the impacts of various interventions on minoritized students in STEM including students who are women, Black and Latine, working class, and sexual and gender minorities. Taken together, the work shows that learning environments that satisfy the need to belong, to feel competent, and pursue personally meaningful paths, act as “social vaccines” that inoculate young people against negative stereotypes about their group and allow them to thrive in STEM. These solutions demonstrate that low-cost interventions inserted for a short period during periods of life transition yield enduring dividends in terms of student success and persistence for years to come.

Abstract

The gender composition of mathematically-intensive STEM fields varies strongly across time and space, but not in the way predicted by modernization theories or popular wisdom. One reason for this so-called paradox may be the stronger masculine labeling of mathematical and technical pursuits in affluent Western societies — and the greater salience of gender stereotypes to career aspirations in these “self-expressive” societies. This talk will introduce survey instruments and some preliminary findings from two new collaborative projects, both online survey experiments that explore cultural mechanisms of gender segregation. One study, based on a population-representative sample of US college students, examines how priming gender differences in task enjoyment affects respondents’ beliefs about their own task performance and their aspirations for related careers. The goal is to provide a causal test of the theoretical premise that educational choices and career ambitions are partly attributable to widely shared cultural beliefs that link enjoyment and “love” of a given activity with gender. A second experiment compares career advice to hypothetical sons and daughters (randomly assigned) between native and immigrant respondents in the United States and United Kingdom and among immigrants from different countries of origin and with different lengths of US and UK residency. The goal is to map demographic and cultural variation in the STEM gender gap and in the reasons given for career advice to sons and daughters.

Abstract

The low share of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) pathways is a complex global phenomenon that requires further investigation, since it is influenced by numerous factors at the personal, environmental, and school level (Sáinz et al., 2022; Van der Hurk et al., 2019; UNESCO, 2017). This gap in women’s participation affects many women and girls worldwide; consequently Spain is not an exception. In my presentation, I will share with the audience some of the lessons learned about my research on gender and STEM over the last 10 years. I will attempt to reflect on the use of different methodologies (i.e., mixed-methods, quantitative, or qualitative research) and theoretical approaches (i.e., expectancy-value, social role theory) to look at some of the main drivers and obstacles shaping women's/girls' participation in STEM pathways in Spain. Some of the results obtained from research with different stakeholders will be therefore discussed.

Abstract

In-depth open ended interviews, combined with rich data collected from a quantitative survey instrument provide insights into the complex set of challenges and opportunities facing Arab women in tech fields. On the one hand, Arab women’s rates of studying computer science and related tech fields are very high (often around 50 percent, compared to other regions where the rate is between 15 to 20 percent). On the other hand, Arab women report experiencing various forms of discrimination both from within their own societies and in the context of working in an increasingly global labor market. The data collected for this study provide a nuanced look at the empirical realities facing Arab women in tech fields, as well as informing two important areas of theory: those focusing on discrimination and those focusing on the impact of globalization. Factors to be analyzed will include the role age, location, type of firm and employment status have played in shaping women’s work experiences. Two particularly important areas where the research sheds light on employment experiences include working as employees versus self-employed, as well as differences in terms of how women experience local versus transnational work opportunities. The study also explores women’s motivations for entering the tech industry with a particular emphasis on their desire to contribute positively to local and global communities.