The purpose of this thesis is to identify typical patterns of career destinations for young women and men in relation to their high school science preparedness. This is an empirical structural study that documents the way high school academic capital is turned (or not) into human capital for science and engineering professions. The study uses ten years of longitudinal data on educational and career paths of British Columbia high school graduates of the Class of '88. Correspondence analysis and other descriptive statistics provide a picture of students' participation in mathematics and science senior high school courses and post-secondary academic programs. School course choices, post-secondary educational attainment, specialization fields are correlated to respondents' high school science preparedness, parental education and gender. A major finding of this study is that high school science preparedness opens greater opportunity for students to attend and succeed along abroad range of post-secondary pathways. Still, thesis findings confirm the existence of a "leaking" phenomenon along the physical sciences and engineering post-secondary pipeline, especially for women as well as men with non-university educated parents. Equity in access and outcomes is discussed in relation to respondents' possession of cultural and academic capital, and in relation to gender inequality that persists within school and post-secondary institutions, the science community and society at large. Implications for further research emerge from the literature review and the interpretation of thesis findings. Longitudinal research needs to explore more directly the reasons why many young women and men who excelled in science at the high school level depart from the science pipeline sooner or later. A major conclusion is that the "critical mass" approach that directs attention toward creating a large supply pool to feed the science pipeline by encouraging more young women to enter the field of science is still a unilateral numerical strategy, and more has to be done to improve the retention and advancement of talented women interested in science. This thesis reinforces the need for an analysis of the culture of the science community and a revision of the leaking science pipeline concept that should be replaced by a more open non-linear model of science careers. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop the Response Inventory to Stereotype-threatening Environments Questionnaire (RISE-Q), a multidimensional measure of the intentional cognitive and behavioral strategies women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations engage to contend with systemic stereotype threat. Hundreds of studies demonstrate negative effects of stereotype threat relevant to women’s workplace experiences (for a review see Walton, Murphy, & Ryan, 2015). However, most focus on acute processes and effects, those that are immediate and temporary in response to a single cue. Less is known about how individuals respond to the experience of chronic stereotype threat (Block, Koch, Liberman, Merriweather, & Roberson, 2011). This has implications for organizations because it is unlikely stereotype threat is only experienced as an acute state in the workplace (Kalokerinos, von Hippel, & Zacher, 2014), and it is the accumulation of stereotype threat-activating cues that may lead to permanent outcomes (Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002). In order to address this gap and contribute to research on women’s career experiences in STEM (Makarem & Wang, 2019), this dissertation develops the RISE-Q, an inventory of three separate, but related, response pattern scales based on three response patterns previously identified by Block, Cruz, Bairley, Harel-Marian, & Roberson (2019): (1) Fending Off the Threat, (2) Confronting the Threat, and (3) Sustaining Self in the Presence of Threat. Seventy-two items across three response pattern scales were developed and tested in a sample of 726 women who currently work in STEM occupations. Results from Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFAs) of data collected from a Qualtrics Panel sample (n = 378) demonstrated each response pattern scale consisted of four factors reflecting four specific strategies. A series of Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFAs) using data collected from online “women in STEM” networks (n = 348) provided evidence for moderate model fit for the Fending Off response pattern scale, and good model fit for the Confronting Threat and Sustaining Self scales. Assessments of internal consistency reliabilities for all three response pattern scales and associated subscales demonstrated strong internal consistency. Further analyses provided strong evidence of convergent validity and criterion-related validity for all three scales. Initial results for the RISE-Q are promising. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

I interviewed women in different fields of biological science and analyzed the interview data by picking out emerging themes. I compared these themes with issues in the feminist literature and with accounts from the social studies of science. Women in biology are far from developing alternative epistemologies, but see themselves as different from their male colleagues in several important respects. They expressed the difficulties in balancing demanding scientific careers with private lives which usually include partners and often included children. At the same time, single women often face problems which married women do not. I conclude that women scientists married to scientists in different specialties may be particularly advantaged. I examined interviewees' attitudes towards collaboration and cooperation both within their laboratories and between interviewees and their scientist peers. I found women biologists frequently describing caring and non-hierarchical relationships within their laboratories. They contrast these with the ambitious and authoritarian attitudes of their male peers. They had a tendency to either work on projects only within their own laboratories. Several described difficulties experienced in collaborating with other investigators. I suggest that there are a number of factors which lead to women scientists publishing less on average than men in science. Among these are numerous competing demands upon women's time, problems with collaboration, and differing personal expectations to those of men. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Current literature reveals that men and women do not participate in the science, engineering and technology (SET) sector on equal grounds – not qualitatively (access) or qualitatively (ease of participation). It is important that women have access to and actively participate in science; they make up more than half of the world’s population and gender equality enhances a country’s economic growth and competitiveness. Furthermore, the focus should extend further than advocating for equal access to SET to actively promoting increased participation by women. Women bring a distinctive quality to SET precisely because of their gender. They are able to increase overall SET participation numbers and positively contribute to the quality and agenda of science. This study used the pipeline theory and lifecycle approach as theoretical bases to investigate the causes for unequal participation and reviewed initiatives aimed at increasing and facilitating the participation of women in SET. Identified causes include unequal access, male-dominated nature of science, tensions of reconciling professional and private life, differences in recognition and reward, and lack of female representation in leadership. The primary methodology used was a documentary analysis study design, consisting primarily of desktop literature searches and categorization. An initiative summary framework was used to summarise and code 123 identified initiatives into an initiatives summary database. Findings were both positive and negative. The study found that women in many cases are on equal footage with their male counterparts and can manage a healthy work-life balance if provided with the necessary support but many women still describe a male-dominated work environment that is exclusionary. Findings indicate that, although decreasing, there is still gender bias in recognition and reward and that female scientists underutilise financial rewards. Women in SET do not receive equal pay for equal work and there is a distinct lack of female representation in SET leadership bodies such as academies of sciences, scientific boards and publication boards of academic journals. The most common modes of intervention are policy interventions, gender mainstreaming, advocacy and interest groups, and provision of training and support. The majority of initiatives are aimed at bringing about change at a national/policy level and are driven primarily by government and academia with academia playing an important middleman role - assisting and guiding government in the design and roll-out of policies on the one hand and meeting the human resource needs of industry on the other. Although government and academia have done well in driving initiatives that increase the participation of women in SET at both school and tertiary level, more needs to be done by industry to drive the facilitation of participation. There are very few initiatives addressing the retention of women in SET; this is linked to the lack of attention to returners as a specific target group. The study concludes that the majority of countries are succeeding in closing the participation gap in terms of access or horizontal gender equality, but that vertical segregation (focusing on recognition, reward and advancement), although acknowledged, remains a mostly unaddressed challenge. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Huidige literatuur dui daarop dat vroue en mans nie gelyke deelname geniet in die Wetenskap, Ingenieurswese en Tegnologie nie – nie kwantitatief (toegang) of kwalitatief (gemak van deelname) nie. Die belangrikheid van deelname word gesket teen die kennis dat vroue die helfte van die wêreld se bevolking verteenwoordig en dat lande wat geslagsgelykheid nastreef oor die algemeen hoër ekonomiese groei en mededingenheid toon. Die fokus in die debat gaan dus nie meer net oor die reg tot toegang nie maar ook oor aktiewe en gemaklike deelname wat vroue toelaat om juis hul unieke eienskappe na die wetenskap te bring. Die studie het die pyplynteorie en ‘n lewenssiklusbenadering as die teoretiese grondslag gebruik om die deelname van vroue in die terrein te bestudeer. Die navorsing het gepoog om die hoofoorsake vir die relatiewe ongelyke deelname van vroue in die Wetenskap, Ingenieurswese en Tegnologie te bepaal. Die hoofoorsake is geidentifiseer as ongelyke toegang, die manlik-gedomineerde aard van wetenskap, die spanning om professionele en persoonlike lewe te versoen, verskille in erkenning en beloning; en die gebrek aan vroulike verteenwoordiging in leierskap. Verder wou die studie bepaal watter inisiatiewe in gebruik is vir die uitbreiding en vergemakliking van vroue se deelname in die veld. Die hoof metodologie was ‘n dokumentêre analise studie ontwerp. ‘n Inisiatief opsommingsraamwerk is gebruik om die 123 geïdentifiseerde inisiatiewe op te som en te kodeer en is saamgevat in 'n inisiatiewe opsommingdatabasis. Bevindinge was beide positief en negatief. Die studie het bevind dat vroue in baie gevalle gelyke toegang geniet en 'n gesonde balans tussen hul persoonlike en professionele lewe kan bestuur indien die nodige ondersteuning gebied word. Baie vroue beskryf egter nog steeds 'n manlik-gedomineerde werksomgewing. Hoewel die neiging dalend is, is daar nog steeds geslagsvooroordele in erkenning en beloning en vroulike wetenskaplikes maak nie genoegsaam gebruik van finansiële belonings wat wel tot hul beskikking is nie. Vroue ontvang ook nie gelyke betaling vir gelyke werk nie. Daar is 'n duidelike gebrek aan vroulike verteenwoordiging in leierskap soos aangedui in die samestelling van akademies van die wetenskap en die bestuursrade van wetenskaplike rade en publikasie rade van wetenskaplike vaktydskrifte. Die mees algemene vorme van intervensies is beleidsintervensies, geslagshoofstroming, voorspraak en belangegroepe, en die verskaffing van opleiding en ondersteuning. Die meerherheid van inisiatiewe is daarop gemik om verandering teweeg te bring op nationale en beleidsvlak en word hoofsaaklik gedryf deur die staat en die akademie. Die akademie speel dan ook ‘n belangrike middelman rol deurdat hul aan die een kant die regering bystaan in die implementering van beleid en aan die anderkant ook die menslike hulpbron behoeftes van industrie moet voed. Daar is ‘n leemte by die meerderheid van inisiatiewe in die aanspreek van die behoeftes van vroue wat wil terugkeer na die veld na ‘n periode van afwesigheid en aan die retensie van vroulike wetenskaplikes. Die studie kom dus tot die gevolgtrekking dat die meerderheid van lande en inisiatiewe daarin slaag om meer gelyke deelname in terme van toegang of horisontale geslaggelykheid te bewerk, maar dat vertikale segregasie (met ‘n fokus op erkenning, belong en bevordering), nog heelwat aandag moet geniet.

This quasi-experimental study, utilizing quantitative and qualitative descriptive methods, examined the sex-egalitarian attitudes of secondary mathematics teachers from the Ft. Worth Independent School District. A video tape, Women in the Workplace, was used as a training intervention to test the effectiveness of professional development training in altering the mathematics teachers' sex-egalitarian attitudes towards female employment. Information on the video presented seven jobs that provide opportunities for female students in the science, engineering, and technology fields that are considered nontraditional jobs for females. Subjects completed 19 Employment Role domain questions on the King and King (1993) Sex-Role Egalitarianism Scale. A one-way ANOVA was applied to the data to test for a significant difference in the means of the control group, who did not see the video, and the experimental group that viewed the video. Findings concluded that there was no significant difference in the sex equalitarian mean scores of the control group and the experimental group. The research indicated that it takes an intensive and prolonged training period to produce a significant change in people's attitudes. This study supports the research on length of training needed to change sex egalitarian attitudes of classroom teachers. There were data collected on four demographic areas that included gender, age, ethnicity, and years of teaching experience. A two-way ANOVA was applied to four demographic variables to test for interaction and main effect. A significant difference was found between the sex-egalitarian attitudes of male and female mathematics teachers' responses. There were no significant differences found in the sex egalitarian attitudes of secondary mathematics teachers when categorized by levels of age, ethnicity, and years of teaching experience. The information in this study should interest and benefit teachers, parents, students, administrators, and industry leaders.

Using a cross-national perspective covering all free and partly free countries, this thesis addresses two questions: What factors are associated with levels of gender representation, ethnic group representation, and ideological representation? And what are the relationships between levels of gender, ethnic group, and ideological representation? Ideological representation regards policy positions in different issue domains, whilst gender and ethnic group representation are concerned with the inclusion of women and ethnic groups in parliament. The representation of ethnic groups is approached in a multivariate cross-national analysis for the first time. Cultural rather than institutional factors seem to be the best predictors for the different levels of gender representation and ethnic group representation. Cultural attitudes are measured with survey questions on attitudes to women as political leaders, and tolerance of marginalized groups in society. The thesis finds that on average quotas for women and ethnic groups are not associated with higher levels of representation, perhaps because of issues regarding how quotas are implemented. Broadly speaking, little effect of the electoral system on any form of representation could be observed. Looking at levels of ideological representation, in line with some recent studies, the thesis suggests that the electoral system is not associated with different levels of ideological representation. I show that this is the case across various policy domains. Furthermore, the thesis finds no evidence for a direct relationship between levels of gender representation and levels of ethnic group representation, but levels of gender representation may be associated with levels of left–right representation. The relationship between different forms of representation might be shaped by the salience of ideological domains and awareness of under-representation of ethnic minority groups. Overall, the thesis argues that cultural attitudes are central to understanding levels of political representation, a factor often neglected in the literature.

Female students continue to lag behind their male counterparts in STEM degree attainment despite performing as well as boys in mathematics and science in high school. Female students who expressed interest in mathematics and science may opt out of majoring in STEM once in college. Given that women may not be perceived as mathematics doers, this perception may affect their decision to pursue STEM careers. In many instances, it is the parents’ encouragement that helps their children to be persistent in mathematics and science. It is important to understand how parents’ involvement in the lives of high-achieving female college students contribute to them persisting and belonging in the STEM domain. In this narrative study, I explored parental influence on mathematics performance, self-efficacy and the factors that may contribute to high-achieving female college students’ interest and persistence in the STEM domain. The participants are eight high-achieving female students from an urban community college who are matriculated STEM majors. This study used Eccles et al.’s (1994) Expectancy-Value Theoretical Model of Achievement Choices and Phelan, Davidson & Yu’s (1998) Multiple Worlds Model to explore parent involvement and the factors that contribute to high-achieving college female’ persistence in STEM. Narratives of the female students’ mathematics experiences were constructed from data collected through multiple sources: student interviews, a parent interview, mathematics autobiographies, and questionnaires. Findings indicate that parents and other family members played an integral role in the students’ mathematics performance, mathematics self-efficacy and persistence in STEM. Furthermore, the depth of parental involvement of several of the participants was consistent throughout their college years.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar por um viés de gênero o processo de institucionalização da farmácia em São Paulo entre 1895 e 1917. Para tanto, seguiremos os farmacêuticos paulistas que, através da fundação de associações científicas, revistas e instituições de ensino, buscaram ampliar sua rede de aliados e se firmarem como um campo profissional separado da medicina. Juntamente a esta busca por alianças poderemos perceber um movimento co-extensivo de delimitação de fronteiras: quem estaria autorizado a exercer esse ofício? Após a fundação da Escola de Pharmácia (1898), acompanharemos como esse processo de institucionalização se misturou à um novo e controverso elemento: a formação de mulheres. Observaremos por meio de quais argumentos os fundadores e membros da congregação da Escola buscaram demarcar os espaços e ações que seriam desejáveis às futuras farmacêuticas, mantendo-as nos bastidores da prática científica que se desejava fundar. Também nos concerne verificar de que maneira as farmacêuticas viabilizaram sua atuação dentro da profissão. / This research aims to analyze the process of institutionalization of pharmacy in São Paulo from 1895 to 1917 through a gender bias. In order to do this, we will follow the pharmacists from São Paulo who, through the foundation of scientific associations, journals and educational institutions, sought to increase their network of allies and establish themselves as a separate professional field from medicine. We also will remark a movement of boundary delimitation, which is coextensive to the search for allies: who was authorized to join the profession? After the foundations of the School of Pharmacy (1898), we will follow in which ways the institutionalization process was crossed by a new element in this space: the presence of women. We have observed by which means schools congregation members and its founders sought to determine the spaces and actions that would be desirable to the future female pharmacists, keeping them in the \"backstage\" of the scientific practice. In the other hand, we are also interested in follow womens arguments and strategies that allowed them to act in this professional field.

A college degree is not a homogenous investment across fields of study (Arcidiacono, 2004; Zhang & Thomas, 2005). Even after accounting for selection, STEM degrees pay substantially more than other fields (Altonji et al., 2012) and earnings disparities across majors have increased substantially over time (Altonji et al., 2014). Even though STEM degrees yield greater labor market returns, the number of STEM graduates and professionals remains low and the disparities in STEM attrition are alarming. As a result, STEM education has been elevated as a national priority in the U.S. and considered to be in high demand in the global economy. Yet, there is a lack of consensus on how to boost STEM graduation. My dissertation is motivated by the need to improve the number and composition of STEM graduates and to evaluate policies that can mitigate STEM attrition. In my dissertation I focus on the effect of college grades and grading policies on STEM graduation. College grades are important determinants of course and major choices and research suggests that grades have differing effects for STEM minorities and non-minorities. Moreover, disparities in grades between STEM (low-grading departments) and non-STEM (high-grading departments) due to grade inflation and compression of grades near the top affect sorting into majors, making grades less informative and distorting major choices (Bar et al. 2012). In my first essay, I examine the possible differential effect of college grades on STEM attrition gap by gender and race. Non-grade explanations such as pre-college factors, instructor gender and race and peer effects are also examined as potential determinants of STEM attrition gaps. However, I focus on grades because there is evidence that grades affect sorting into majors, and grades may have differing effects for minorities and non-minorities. This review uncovers evidence supporting the importance of institutional grading policies to shape student’s major and course choices. Despite the fact that institutional grading policies have been studied at some extent, none of these studies have addressed the differential effect of these policies on those who might be more sensitive to grades (i.e., women and racial minorities). In the second essay, I explore what factors explain the gender and race disparities in STEM attrition. This study utilize Florida’s Education Data Warehouse to conduct a reweighted Oaxaca decomposition of racial and gender differences in STEM attrition, with a particular focus on how STEM- intending students respond to college grades in introductory courses. The decomposition results show that women mainly leave STEM by switching into non-STEM fields, particularly due to non-STEM college factors such as grades and credits attempted in lower-division courses. In contrast, racial minorities mainly leave STEM by dropping out of college towards graduation, and they differentially leave STEM due to their lower high school preparation in STEM and consequently lower grades in lower-division STEM courses during their first two years of enrollment. In the third essay (which is also my job market paper) I examine the effect of changing the grading scale from whole-letter grades to plus/minus grades on STEM graduation/major choice. In this study, I examine the effect of changing the grading scale from whole-letter grades to plus/minus grades on STEM graduation/major choice. I use administrative data from the Florida Department of Education that combines students’ pre-college characteristics with students’ enrollment and transcript records. I rely on a difference in differences framework that compares STEM graduation/major choice rates during the early 2000s versus the late 1990s for students whose grading differentials between STEM and non-STEM courses were reduced versus students whose grades were not differentially affected. I find significant effects of changing the grading scale on reducing grading differentials and improving STEM graduation/major choice. These results represent the first direct, quasi-experimental evidence regarding the effect of changing the grading scale.