Women, Work and the Academy: Strategies for Responding to 'Post-Civil Rights Era' Gender Discrimination

Women, Work and the Academy > Executive Summaries > Kimberlee A. Shauman

Executive Summary

Kimberlee A. Shauman, Department of Sociology, University of California Davis

My primary research in the area of gender equity is a collaborative project with Yu Xie (University of Michigan, Professor of Sociology) that examines gender stratification in science and engineering occupations. This project concluded with the publication of our book, Women in Science: Career Processes and Outcomes (Harvard University Press) in the fall of 2003. More recently, I have begun a collaborative data collection effort with Debbie Niemeier (University of California, Davis, Professor of Civil Engineering Professor) aimed at describing the representation of men and women among department chairs across all academic disciplines and sex differences in the experience of that administrative position. I briefly describe these research projects below.

Women in Science: Career Processes and Outcomes

In this book we present the first systematic examination of gender differences in the science and engineering career trajectory throughout the life course: from middle school through the career years. Adopting a life course perspective to the analysis of a career trajectory, we explore both the early life course processes of selection into and out of the science educational track, as well as the stratifying influences that operate after entry into the science labor market. With detailed statistical analyses of data drawn from seventeen nationally representative datasets, this book provides a systematic and updated account of where and why women fall behind men in the preparation for and development of scientific careers.

We begin with an assessment of the extent of gender differences in mathematics and science achievements in middle and high school and their impact on gender differences in subsequent participation in science education. We then examine sex differences in postsecondary educational paths leading to a bachelor's degree in science or engineering and the subsequent career paths that follow degree attainment. In the second part of the book, we focus on sex differences in the labor force experiences of practicing scientists. We first provide an overview of sex differences in labor force outcomes such as employment, earnings, and promotion before delving into detailed analyses of three specific topics where consequential gender differences are evident: geographic mobility, research productivity, and the experience of immigrant scientists in the U.S. labor market.

Throughout the book, we attempt to analyze the science/engineering career trajectory in its entirety. Our analyses focus on specifying the causal influences of prior experiences on later career outcomes and the interactions of the multiple domains of an individual's life such as career and the family. We accomplish this by relying on extensive statistical analysis of longitudinal data and, in places where true longitudinal data are lacking, ÒsyntheticÓ cohorts constructed through piecing together information from various data sources pertaining to different periods of the life course.

Our empirical results do not support many popular explanations for the underrepresentation of women in science, such as those that attribute the relatively low participation of women in science education to gender differences in achievement and coursework and the low supply of women in the science and engineering labor force to lack of persistence in the relevant college majors. Instead, we find that the causes are complex and vary across educational and career stages. Most notably, our findings suggest that gender inequality in family roles remains a significant roadblock to women's further progress in science and engineering careers, as marriage and parenthood continue to benefit men but disadvantage women. The book is an important contribution to the women in science literature and to the more general literature on gender stratification in education and the labor force.

Notable findings from the book:

Gender differences in math achievement favor boys, but the magnitude of the differences has declined significantly over time; even at their greatest level, gender differences are not large (Chapter 2, pp.37-38). However, girls are significantly less likely than boys to be among the highest achievers on standardized math and science tests (Chapter 2, p.39).
Gender differences in the likelihood that a high school senior expects to major in science or engineering in college cannot be attributed to gender differences in math course participation or achievement (Chapter 3, pp.71-72).
Entering a science/engineering major during college after expecting to pursue a non-science/engineering major is the most common route to a science/engineering baccalaureate among women (Chapter 4, p.83). Also, after the transition from high school to college, young women are as likely as young men to persist to degree attainment in a science/engineering major (Chapter 4, p. 86).
Gender differences in career paths following the completion of a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in science/engineering are relatively small (Chapter 5, pp.113-114; Chapter 6, p.125).
Among recipients of a bachelor's or a master's degree in science/engineering, married women with children have low rates of participation in the labor force or graduate education (Chapter 5, pp.111-113; Chapter 6, p.122).
There is a clear and persistent pattern in which marriage and parenthood exacerbate gender differences in outcomes such as employment, earnings, and promotion. Gender differences among unmarried scientists are either small or nonexistent, but married women experience large disadvantages relative to men, especially if they have children (Chapter 7, pp.143-146).
Parenthood limits women scientists' migration significantly more than that of men scientists. We show indirectly that the greater geographic mobility among men is probably due to their wives' lesser labor force commitment and greater investment in childcare, especially when the children are young. Women scientists' geographic mobility is restricted significantly when their children are young, a period that is likely to coincide with the formative years of their careers (Chapter 8, pp. 170-172).
Gender differences in publication productivity among academic scientists has declined significantly over the past decades (Chapter 9, pg. 176), and such differences are due to gender differences in personal background characteristics, structural positions, and facilitating resources (Chapter 9, pp.182-183).
Immigration works to increase women's representation in the biological, mathematical, and physical sciences (Chapter 10, pg.197). Immigrant women scientists, however, appear to face more impediments to success than do native-born women. In particular, gender differences in rates of promotion are much greater among immigrant scientists than among those who are native-born. Immigrant women are promoted at a rate that is less than a third as high as the rate for immigrant men (Chapter 10, pg. 199).

Stepping up the Academic Ladder: Examining the Progress of Women as Department Chairs

This project is the first systematic effort to collect data about the characteristics of the job of department chair and the scholars who assume that responsibility. The lack of data on the representation of women among department chairs, the correlates of their attainment of that position and their experiences in fulfilling such a leadership role represents a significant gap in our knowledge about gender equity in academia. Experience as a department chair is widely seen as a prerequisite for other positions of leadership and often provides the successful chair with a prominent voice whose influence long outlasts the tenure as chair. Sex differences in access to such leadership positions may handicap the ability of individual women scholars to assume and/or to successfully execute higher-level administrative positions and, therefore, the pursuit of gender equity in the academy more generally.

A two year (2002-2004) grant from the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Leadership Program supported the administration of a survey of department chairs at universities classified as Research I (R1) institutions by the Carnegie Foundation and/or belonging to the American Association of Universities (AAU). The survey collected information about the institutional process by which a department chair is appointed, the responsibilities of the chair, personal feelings about preparedness for the position and success in the role, and background information about education, career achievements and demographic information. The survey was fielded to department chairs in science and engineering departments during the 2002-2003 academic year and to chairs of non-science departments during the 2003-2004 academic year. The complete database includes information from over 2,600 department chairs. Preliminary analyses of the survey data are currently under way. These data will support a series of articles that (1) examine the representation of women and racial/ethnic minorities among departmental chairs across both science and non-science disciplines, (2) describe the structural correlates of differential access to such positions, and (3) describe differences in the experiences of those who serve as department chairs.

Preliminary findings:

In 2002 , women held 2 percent (15 out of 754) of the department chair or head positions in R1 and AAU university engineering departments.
In 2002 , women held 4.6 percent (26 out of 566) of the department chair or head positions in R1 and AAU university math and physical science departments.