Doing Gender in the Conference Hall: Do Men and Women Behave Differently in Engineering Scientific Environments?

The literature on women in STEM areas displays the barriers that women face at scientific workplaces, showing important interaction where they do and undo gender. However, there is a lack of research about the extent men and women do and undo gender in networking environments. This is a participant observation at Human-Computer Interactions annual conferences in a mainly male-dominated environment. It explored how researchers are ‘doing’ and ‘undoing’ gender focusing on two main dimensions: the gender roles adopted by men and women during the presentations and social activities, and the gender contents exposed in their research talks. A first result shows that sex and gender issues are trivialized in research contents by both men and women researchers. A second result reveals that men and women unintentionally and successively ‘do’ and ‘undo’ gender as a strategy to fit into a neutral and accepted identity of engineering and computer scientists.     

Trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in Mexico and their identity crisis

The main objective of this paper is to explore how sexual violence and exploitation cause identity crisis among victims of sex-trafficking in Mexico. Trafficking is a widespread phenomenon, where girls and women are forced or coerced into sexual exploitation. Victims of trafficking acquire not only adverse physical health; also there is a higher impact on emotional and psychological health and leads women to an‘identity crisis'. Once they're brought into brothel, their body is controlled by pimps, and seen as a source of income through prostitution. As Bauman said; commodification and consumption of female bodies is indeed useful to explain an individual's fragile identity. Moreover, my own scholarly interest in women trafficking has led me to turn towards defining the identity crisis among these victims as it is directly related to sexual exploitation. For this study, a total of 60 women were interviewed during 2007–2013 using a snowball method.     

Sexual Identity Formation of Women Who Love Women: A Contextual View Point

Nonheterosexuals experience oppression and discrimination that affect personal development on all levels. An increased awareness of sexual identity development could create more inclusive sexual identity models, better understanding for counselor educators, and better training for counselors on issues of sexual identity. The purpose of this study was to identify the life experiences that influence sexual identity in women who love women. This study required that participants attach meaning to sexual identity formation. From the data collected, four themes emerged: I was just different, information seeking, view of self as a woman within the context of culture, and contextual relationships. Findings of this study did not support a stage model of sexual identity development. Instead, this study supported the view that sexual identity is fluid and strongly related to relationships with peer groups.     

Understanding Women's Underrepresentation in Science,Technology, Engineering,and Mathematics: The Role of Social Coping

Enrollment of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors is disproportionately small and declining. This study examines social coping to explain the gender gap. Women undergraduates reported using significantly more social coping than did men. Multiple regression analyses revealed that social coping was a stronger predictor of commitment to major for women than for men. Social coping negatively predicted intent to turn over, or withdraw from, their major for women, but not for men. Unexpectedly, social coping negatively predicted academic course grade for men but not for women. Results suggest that women benefit more from social coping than do men. Implications for counselors and policy are discussed.     

The emotional costs of computers: an expectancy-value theory analysis of predominantly low-socioeconomic status minority students’ STEM attitudes

There is a strong push to increase American students’ interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) careers. However, minority and female students remain underrepresented in the STEM fields. Therefore, it is essential that we continue to examine the potential factors that both incite and dissuade STEM interest. We apply Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) to examine STEM attitudes of predominantly low-socioeconomic status minority elementary school students over the course of a computing intervention. Furthermore, we integrate the digital inequality mental access conceptualization of ‘emotional costs’ into the EVT model in order to predict students’ negative STEM attitudes. Data are from a large-scale computing intervention that took place in a primarily minority, high poverty, urban elementary school district located in the southeastern USA. Results indicate that positive expectancies for success and subjective task values predict students’ positive STEM attitudes. Emotional costs toward technology primarily predict negative STEM attitudes. Students’ expectancies/values and emotional costs may have a ‘push-and-pull’ effect on the formation of STEM attitudes. This study successfully links digital disparities to STEM disparities by integrating the digital inequality concept of emotional costs. Practically, we conclude that future computing interventions should increase students’ academic-related expectancies and values while also minimizing their emotional costs in order to address both digital and STEM inequalities. Theoretically, we conclude that broad conceptualizations of emotional costs should be included in future studies to help explain negative attitudes/motivations toward STEM-related topics.     

Academic Procrastination in STEM: Interactive Effects of Stereotype Threat and Achievement Goals

A host of academic outcomes have been investigated as consequences of stereotype threat for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including attrition and decreased academic performance. However, the role of a potentially important precursor to these negative outcomes—academic procrastination—remains unclear. The present research sought to address this issue. University students (N = 223) enrolled in biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology courses participated in the study. Mastery approach, mastery avoidance, and performance avoidance achievement goals were hypothesized to moderate the effect of stereotype threat on academic procrastination. Results indicated significant interactions for women but not for men; however, interactions were not in the hypothesized direction for the avoidance goal moderators. Mastery approach goals exerted a significant buffering effect on the stereotype threat–academic procrastination relationship, but, contrary to prediction, both mastery avoidance and performance avoidance goals exerted a significant buffering effect. Implications for career‐related outcomes among women in STEM are discussed.     

Gender in academic STEM: A focus on men faculty

In this study, we explore how men faculty understand the role of gender in shaping faculty experiences in academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and how they position themselves in relation to inequalities disfavouring women. Our data reveal diversity among men in their understandings regarding challenges facing women in STEM. The majority of our participants revealed gender‐blind perspectives and argued that the egalitarian structure of academia does not allow gender to impact attainments in STEM in any significant way. However, a considerable number of them felt privileged compared to women and described subtle ways in which gender shapes opportunities. Our findings show the important implications of men's sensitivity to gender in the ways they perform their professional roles as, for example, mentors, colleagues and teachers in relation to women in STEM. They further call for attention to men's perceptions of gender issues when designing institutional interventions for improving women's conditions in STEM.     

Gender in Academic Career Tracks: The Case of Korean Biochemists

How important is academic performance in obtaining a tenure‐track position in academic science? I use data on Korean biochemists and analyze them from both institutionalist and gender perspectives. In so doing, I illustrate the ways academic performance and gender interact with one another to maintain a gender barrier for Ph.D.s entering an academic career. The main findings are as follows. First, academic productivity did influence the job market outcomes, but the male scientists benefited from publications in both SCI and non‐SCI journals, whereas the female scientists benefited only from those in SCI journals. I also found a positive effect of overseas doctoral training only for the female scientists. Such analysis suggests that women as a minority in academic science are pressured to prove their legitimacy through more rigorous criteria of academic performance. Thus, ostensibly gender‐neutral rules of academic performance can be applied in such a way as to maintain gender inequality.     

Un/gendering Social Selves: How Nonbinary People Navigate and Experience a Binarily Gendered World

Based on in‐depth interviews, we explore how people who do not identify exclusively or consistently as either women or men (i.e., nonbinary people) navigate a culture that bifurcates people into women or men. Using an interactionist approach, we first analyze how interviewees employ discourse (e.g., names, identity labels, and pronouns) and the body (e.g., expressions, decoration, and transformation) to present themselves as nonbinary, which we conceptualize as ungendering social selves. Second, we examine the emotional benefits (e.g., authenticity, pride, liberation) and burdens (e.g., fear, rejection, exhaustion) of ungendering. Third, we uncover the emotional, social, and structural conditions under which our nonbinary‐identified participants sometimes present themselves as binarily gendered, which we conceptualize as gendering social selves. We conclude with discussing empirical and theoretical contributions.     

Gender Labor,Assimilationism, and Transformative Practices: The Relational Negotiations of Cisgender Women and their Transgender Men Partners

Despite the rise in research on the experiences of transgender men (female‐to‐male, FTM) in recent years, little academic attention has been paid to the partners of these individuals. The experiences of a large portion of this population, cisgender women whose partners transition from female to male, provide a unique perspective on how individuals negotiate performances of normative gender ideals and heteronormative practices in transitioning non‐normative relationships. Research has shown that when these cisgender women find themselves in relationships that are socially defined as heterosexual, they often begin questioning their sexual orientation in relation to their partner's gender identity as well as the role and applicability of their beliefs regarding gender equality and anti‐heteronormative practices. This article provides an overview of the current literature that addresses the enactment of gender labor, the practice of reaffirming another person's gender through physical, emotional, and sexual care, by cisgender women whose partners transition from female to male. Specific focus is given to how, in some situations, the performance of gender labor manifests in assimilationist ways that adhere to typically heteronormative frameworks as well as how, in others, the performance of gender labor manifests in potentially transformative and destabilizing ways that serve to challenge normative structures. Gaps in the existing literature as well as directions for future research are also explored.     

What’s the matter with being Indonesian? A social representation approach to unravelling Indonesian national identity / ¿Qué significa ser indonesio? Una perspectiva de la representación social para desentrañar la identidad nacional indonesia

Due to its diverse nature, being an Indonesian is sometimes confusing as it entails overlapping national, ethnic and religious identity. By using a social representation approach, online survey research involving 114 Indonesians was carried out to explore these questions: How do Indonesians negotiate their ethnic, religious and national identity? What identity markers should one possess to claim being an Indonesian? And lastly, who is the nationalist? Research findings suggest that national and ethnic identity as well as ethnic and religious identity were consensual, while the relation between religious and national identity was emancipated. It is also found that being a Muslim and possessing a stronger sense of ethnic identity would increase the likelihood of being a prouder Indonesian, while being a female, living abroad for 5–10 years, being a nationalist Muslim and embracing transnational Islamic movements reduced the probability of having a stronger sense of national identity.     

High School Is Not Too Late: Developing Girls' Interest and Engagement in Engineering Careers

Although experts increasingly call for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to begin in middle and elementary schools, a 3‐year intervention beginning with high‐achieving female high school sophomores demonstrated that young women can develop a serious interest in engineering in high school. However, subsequent post‐high school study of the participants showed that interest in engineering was not enough for lower‐income minority women to pursue engineering in college. It should be noted that their decision against pursuing engineering in college was not due to their lack of academic preparation or interest in the field, but to a lack of financial resources and social support for engineering, as well as fears of failure. Career counselors and college recruiters have an important role to play in the recruitment and retention of girls of color in engineering and other STEM college majors, including facilitating support and access to appropriate programs and resources at pivotal times.     

Support for Academic Women in Political Science 1890-1945

Between 1893, when the first woman took a PhD in political science, and 1945, about 150 women became political scientists. Support for their professional lives came primarily from other women who were their teachers or their colleagues in women's colleges. Most early women did not marry; those who did found domestic roles detrimental to their careers. Graduate departments channeled women back to women's colleges and did not recruit women for their own faculties. Women are included in the professional organization primarily as representatives of women's colleges. The condition of entry into a secure academic life was to remain sigle and accept a sex-segregated place; but this security did not provide the necessary credential of a prestigious home department for leadership of the nationally organized profession.     

The golden star: an emotional repertoire of scientific discovery and legacy

This paper examines vocabularies of emotion in the discovery narratives of a group of genetic scientists. The discovery of the gene for myotonic dystrophy in 1992 was part of a unique and highly competitive phase of molecular genetic research into single gene hereditary conditions. Members of a small group of scientists who made a significant contribution to the discovery of the gene were interviewed sixteen years later about the impact of that discovery. They structured their memories into narrative accounts characterized by vivid recall, colourful language and use of an emotional repertoire to reconstruct the dynamics, relationships and personal meaning of the discovery. The focus of this emotional language was on what it meant to be a molecular scientist, the dynamics of the incremental work that led to eventual success, the networks surrounding the team and the legacy of discovery in relation to science and to the individual scientists. The emotional repertoire revealed subtle differences between accounts, where there was universal recognition of the importance of the discovery for a scientific career but ambivalence regarding its personal meaning for some key actors.     

The social origins of black American doctorates in the sciences

Most sociological studies of U.S. scientists tend to disregard black Americans. This paper seeks to provide some necessary demographic data on black U.S. scientists on which future studies may build. A sample of 557 black scientists responded to a questionnaire designed to provide demographic data. The results show that the typical black U.S. scientist is a male who grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood in a lower middle‐class family with both parents present and usually another sibling or two. After graduating in the top quartile of a predominantly black public high school, he enrolled in a predominantly black college where his academic achievement was above average. When the decision was made to pursue the Ph.D. degree, the preference was a university located in the Midwest. After completing the doctorate the pattern was to return to the South to pursue a career in a predominantly black college.     

Mobile Phones and Entrepreneurial Identity Negotiation by Urban Female Street Traders in Uganda

Mobile phones have been posited as enhancing women's entrepreneurship and gender equality in developing countries, yet empowerment outcomes are unclear. This article considers how women in the gender‐segregated informal economy construct their entrepreneurial identity in relation to mobile phones and the discursive repertoires that marginalize and empower. Using data from interviews with six urban female street traders in Kampala, Uganda, it explores how these repertoires illustrate their sense of self, positioning and belonging to the business community. Normative representations and positioning of female traders can sideline entrepreneurial identity and over‐validate gender identity. But, participants also negotiate entrepreneurial identity construction in response to these marginalizing influences. Although the data demonstrate that participants are equivocal about their entrepreneurial identity or fit in business, some representations are more validating and offer a sense of belonging. The article concludes by highlighting the nuanced opportunities for social change their discursive repertoires may present.     

Lesbian Identity Management at Various Stages of the Coming Out Process: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study is designed to explore how women at various stages of lesbian identity development make decisions about managing their identities. Management of identity was studied in terms of how women came out or stayed hidden and how they made decisions both to disclose and to conceal. The Cass (1984) Stage Allocation Measure was used as a means to categorize women at various stages of lesbian identity development. Twenty-five adult women were individually interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. A journal was kept by each woman for one month. The major findings indicated that women at different stages of lesbian identity development use both disparate and similar identity-management and decision-making strategies. Underlying and connecting lesbian identity management and development was the need to maintain self-esteem and safety.     

Emotional school engagement among minority youth: the relevance of cultural identity,perceived discrimination,and perceived support

ABSTRACT

Minority student school dropout represents a challenging issue for educational systems in many countries. Notwithstanding minority families' overall high academic aspirations, there is a stable achievement gap between majority and minority students. Minority students who are emotionally engaged with their school tend to be psychologically and socioculturally better adapted to their country of residence and, as a result, report higher academic success. Therefore, emotional school engagement represents a relevant factor for integration into the host society. The goal of this paper is to investigate the interrelation between ethnic and national identity, perceived discrimination, and perceived support from parents, peers, and teachers with emotional school engagement. Results indicate that cultural capital within the family, cultural self-identification, and perceived support from peers and teachers play an important role for students’ emotional school engagement.     

Race‐gender variations in the demographic characteristics of doctoral scientists

Most of the research literature has given little or no attention to the social backgrounds and traits of black scientists and female scientists. The present study, based on survey findings on a national sample of American scientists, helps to fill this gap. Female scientists are compared with their male colleagues, and black scientists with their white colleagues. Race is a better predictor than gender of certain demographic characteristics. However, a clearer picture of variations in social background and current family patterns is derived from an analysis which controls for both race and gender. This analysis includes data on social status of parents, marital status of scientist, number of siblings and number of offspring, religious identity, and region of origin. The implications of these survey findings for the future development of scientific talent are explored, including some implications for researchers, sociologists of science, and social planners.     

A latent class analysis of school climate among middle and high school students in California public schools

Research has shown that a positive school climate plays a protective role in the social, emotional, and academic development of adolescent youth. Researchers have utilized variable centered measures to assess school climate, which is limited in capturing heterogeneous patterns of school climate. In addition, few studies have systematically explored the role of race and gender in perceived school climate. This study utilizes a latent class approach to assess whether there are discrete classes of school climate in a diverse statewide sample of middle and high school youth. Drawing from the 2009–2011 California Healthy Kids Survey, this study identified four latent classes of school climate: Some caring, connectedness, and safe; negative climate; high caring, participation, and safe; and positive climate. The findings indicated that race and grade level significantly predicted school climate class membership. Black students were three times more likely to be members of the negative school climate class, when compared to White students. Gender did not significantly predict school climate class membership. The results of this study provide school climate researchers and educators with a nuanced picture of school climate patterns among middle and high school students.