Does Gender Matter Analysis

Today in society it can be agreed that women have indeed gained many rights that were not accessible to them 100 years before. Although, despite the mentality that men and women are treated equally there are still very many discrepancies between the treatment of genders. Many of which can be attributed to the expectations placed on the genders, gender roles between both genders, and women in the workplace. These issues have caused a great rift to form between the genders, a rift that has caused one gender to claim dominance over the other and this can develop a sense of inferiority by the submissive gender.

The stated prerogative is to introduce slow yet lasting change and to integrate more women and people of color within the STEM field; however, the plan for change, and the reason for its perceived need to be slow is nowhere addressed; , suggesting that it is rather the reluctance of men to relinquish control and allow feminization of the field (Tepperman and Curtis, 2012). Reports of these initiatives claim to be struggling struggle in attracting and keeping women within the STEM field. Yet by shifting the blame on women, the inaction taken by scientific institutions to reform the patriarchal ideals dominating the scientific realm is justified (Tepperman and Curtis, 2012). In addition, the economic paradigm that western society is built around is one that necessitates inequality to function. The Neoliberal welfare is instrumental in constructing gender

51 percent of the United States is female but only 34.4 percent of doctors are women. While 90.4 percent of nurses are female (“Women in Medicine”; “Male Nurses Becoming”), the women who do become doctors earn an astounding 25 percent less than their male counterparts (Groves). These staggering figures are only a single piece in the larger overall lack of women in STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which has remained prevalent since the beginning of these fields. Although women are underrepresented in these STEM fields, this is not due to ineptitude, but instead it is a result of the force of societal stereotypes coupled with their wider range of abilities. The recent increase in women’s association with STEM seems

The STEM fields are diverse and evolving constantly, with the advancement of civil rights in regards to women as well as the education of the public to this issue, it is likely that there will come a time when women and men can be equally represented in these disciplines. The importance of studying the gender gap between men and women in STEM is to learn how to confront gender biases in these fields. Conclusive evidence has shown that diversity in science will likely yield positive results. Findings from the Journal of the Royal Society Interface state that:

Chapter 2 of the textbook describes ideas of gender and the gender binary, as well as the ways we associate objects, people, places, and ideas with gender. The personal exception theory of gender states that we assume that most people are better described by the gender binary than we are. I feel that most everyone experiences this phenomenon, mainly because we are the only ones who know everything about ourselves. Not every single thing about us as individuals will fit into a box of “masculine” or “feminine.” Since I know every detail about myself, I can say that although I am female, I have certain interests and habits that don’t fit within the “feminine” sphere, such as four wheeling and taking up a lot of space when I sit.

In the study presented by Wang, Eccles, and Kenny (2013), they indicated that prior researchers (Ceci, Williams, & Barnett, 2009; Eccles, 2009; Eccles, Barber, & Jozefowicz, 1999; Ferriman, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009) provided an alternative explanation of the gender gap in STEM fields. They indicated that this is related to females not being interested in STEM fields, life choices, and mathematical aptitude. Their findings indicated that math aptitude is not the decisive reason for the underrepresentation of females in STEM

The concept of a third gender has never really been a prevalent discussion in my life. In fact, I have never heard of any of three examples that Beyond the Binary discusses, demonstrating how little it is talked about, even in the LGBT community. What I found the most interesting about these third genders was the mystical qualities that they had. For example, the Inuits raise children along with their opposite the societal gender role, usually for practical reasons. However, occasionally the cause for this gender reversal is because of an elder embodying the body of the child. Additionally, I had never heard of the concept of Hijras, who have to power to grant fertility or infertility to others. Hinchey states, “Hijras challenged the binary

When acknowledging the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, we notice that this gap in gender participation begins to expand once students leave grade school (K – 12) and move into higher education. One of the reasons for this comes from women being underrepresented in these areas. So obviously, when working to close this gap, schools must work to represent women in these fields as much as they do men. In grade school, students are more likely to have a positive attitude towards women in science when they are exposed to women who work in STEM fields, as opposed to classes that were not given that exposure (Smith & Owens 1986). So, if the interest in STEM tends to be equal between girls and boys in grade school, it is fair to say the girls move away from these areas because they feel as if they don’t belong due to underrepresentation.

Lynne started her career in school education in admissions and in summer programs at the Northfield Mr. Hermon School. She then grew into the position of a director of high school placement and direct of development in New York City. For about seven years she spent her time at Ethical Culture Fieldstone School in the admissions department and for about five years she served as Executive Director of The Albert G. Oliver Program. During her role as executive director as The Albert G. Oliver program she help found the Independent School Placement association, an organization in which helps student of color in independent schools. Lynne is a mother of two daughters

The goal of any good psychology class is to leave students with a better understanding of themselves and others. Psychology of gender is a special topic to most because it is a class based entirely on how we as living social creatures operate, elude ourselves to others, and it delves deep into the underling themes of why and how people naturally form and judge other’s identities. A judgement that is often harsh when people go out of the heteronormative scope of our western society that often leaves negative marks on how someone is able to operate freely within their gender (Purdie-Vaughns & Elbach 2008). One major take home point from a class such as this is that gender cannot be looked at on a sexual binary scale because gender is a lucid

“When cultural beliefs about male superiority exist in any area, even a fictitious one, girls assess their abilities in that area lower, judge themselves by a higher standard, and express less of a desire to pursue a career in that area than boys do” (44). Societal messages impede our self-assessment, and along with stereotypes can cause women to not follow a career in STEM. The internalized belief that many women hold about STEM can determine the path that they take academically. This reading has allowed me to evaluate my own choices and considerations for leaving a math/science major in college. Though I don’t think I ever felt less capable, I lost interest in science, and my performance slowed down exponentially is math. I began to self-sabotage my grades to convince my family that I did not belong in STEM. Through this reading, I have recognized the doubt I had in myself, and my future. I’ve tried to convince myself that leaving that major was my choice, but I left because I doubted my success, and I was not happy. My self-assessment of my intelligence and performance led me to choose a different career path. I actively denied these stereotypes and cultural beliefs about women in STEM, because I was successful and so were my sisters in this field. I ignored the instances where I was treated as less, and almost accepted it as normal. I now understand the importance of

Gender performance is what we do to show how we identify ourselves when it comes to gender. As it says in the second slide of the Chapter three PowerPoint, gender isn’t what we do, it’s who we are, and what we become. If you are a guy, you normally dress like a man. Like the example from class you don’t usually see a man wearing a skirt when he attends class or goes to work. This is changes culturally because not all cultures see gender the same way that our culture does. Our culture usually only identifies or accepts male or female. It is only relatively recently that our culture is starting to accept the people who are not cisgender. And even now it depends on the person as to whether they will personally accept them or not. This is also related to doing gender because we do what society says we do depending on what gender we are assigned at birth (Ch. 3 Slide 2).

The first problem that we have focused on is the “stereotype threat”. The stereotype threat is defined as “A large body of experimental research has found the negative stereotype to affect women’s and girl’s performance and aspirations in math and science” (Why so Few? p.38). What this does to women and girls is that they believe to perform at a lower performance than boys. They consider that men and boys are superior in math and science and therefore they avoid pursuing in these fields. They rather avoid liking or expressing any interest in the STEM programs so that they are not

There is mounting evidence of a gender gap in STEM fields in the United States. In a recent study looking at the gender distribution of college graduates receiving STEM related degrees, it was found that 19% of STEM related bachelor’s degrees are awarded to women, with only 3% awarded to minority women. Furthermore, males are six times more likey to take engineering courses than women. However, this gender gap cannot only be associated with recent graduating classes. Historically, fewer women have chosen to pursue careers in STEM related fields. Though women make up 47% of the workforce, they make up 25% of the science and computer science workforce, and just 13% of the engineering workforce.

Gender is important to Western society, and fittingly, it is deeply woven into the infrastructure of the United States. Whether it comes from the media, school, work, or church, people are fed innumerable amounts of messages everyday instructing them how he or she should look and behave based on their sex, and there is no escaping it. While these gender values have been challenged more frequently and intensely in recent years, one, growing up in a culture that places so much important on gender performance (based on sex), cannot help but be exposed and influenced by it to some degree. At this point, it is crucial to differentiate between the words “sex” and “gender,” which tend to be used interchangeably, an issue that leads to much