Running head: WOMEN AND SCIENCE 1

Women and Science

Name:

Institutional Affiliation:
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Were you aware of the under-representation of women in the sciences? Explain

For decades, women, despite making significant progress in research, have been grossly

underrepresented in the scientific field. Invariably, such glaring underrepresentation was

largely systemic stemming from the education system in the initial years of learning, where

women were discouraged from taking science related courses in their formative school years.

Ideally, a scientific career was considered more masculine, and women who pursued such

vocations were frowned upon by the society. Societal stereotypes also contributed a great deal

to the marginalization of womenfolk in the scientific field. The skewed representation of

women in sciences is exemplified by the fact that only one out of five PHD candidates

qualifying for various doctorates in America are women. Moreover, only about 14% of physics

professors in the United States are women, further cementing the notion that the female gender

is highly been overlooked in the scientific research sector. Universities across the United States

have been known not to offer tenured professors position in their respective universities to

women in their school of applied sciences. The ingrained systemic cultural stereotypes against

women by scientific instructors across the United States against women, has contributed

significantly to further alienation of women from the scientific field In this regard, women

have reported about being teased by their lecturers about their perceived inability to

successfully compete with their male counterparts in the scientific field. Moreover, the

disproportionate pay gap between men and women in has contributed immensely to the

inability of women to successfully compete with men. Studies have shown that Biologists and

chemists across the United States are known to be more likely to to view young male scientist

more favorably than a female with the same qualifications.

What were the stone walls for women in the sciences during the historical Renaissance

period in Europe?

The Renaissance period was characterized by profound and sustainable developments in the

scientific field, punctuated by groundbreaking innovations that fundamentally changed the

course of human life. Almost invariably, the highly patriarchal society during this poignant

moment in human history, made every effort to exclude the women from mainstream scientific

field. In this regard, men enjoyed a front row seat through historic scientific development at the

expense of womenfolk. Invariably, various man- made stonewalls were fashioned by design, to

alienate the women folk from scientific renaissance. Thus various stonewalls existed that

significantly reduced women’s confidence in successfully competing with the men folk on an

equal footing. The highly patriarchal society in various places during renaissance for instance

Venice in Italy, had only two options for young women. The first option was to banish them in

Catholic run convents where they would be educated in arts and music, until such a time that

they would be ripe for an arranged marriage, and consequently relegated to housewives bogged

down by household chores and childbearing. The courses that these women were taught in

convents ranged from embroidery, poetry and music with no hint of science as was the case

with their men counterparts. The main motivation for such kind of treatment was a flawed

congenial societal notion that men were inherently predisposed to sciences than women.

Another stonewall that negatively women was the advent of male dominated colleges across

the world during the renaissance. The education system excluded women and was reduced to a

preserve of bourgeoisies’ sons, a factor that negatively affected women’s upward mobility in

sciences.

What were the stone walls for women in the sciences during the 19th century in the US?
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. Nevertheless, despite the numerous and seemingly insurmountable stonewalls directed to the

female gender, women made significant gains in writing, punctuated by a litany of books

penned by popular women writers, who excelled in scientific topics ranging from Botany,

Geology and Chemistry, a major shift in common stereotypes regarding women forays in

science. However, most women across the continental United States were locked out of science

colleges, as boys were favored to be more receptive to such courses than the womenfolk were.

The restrictive educational systems and highly flawed social norms thus played a great part in

in relegating women’s ambitions in the science field to the periphery in the United Sates in the

19th century. With the advent of liberalization of college enrollment ostensibly to embrace

women in the 19th century, came another stonewall in the form of employment opportunities for

the female gender. Women who worked hard to attain a college degree were required to be

married first in order to secure employment. The desire by women to focus on their

professional success, by moving up the education and corporate ladder, were therefore

diminished by implementation of such patriarchal rules and regulations that smacked of gross

misogyny. The proliferation of colleges in the United Sates that supported women education

however, did not imply that all the young girls who sought college education were admitted to

such institutions. Indeed, colleges such as Harvard and Princeton deliberately refused to grant

doctorate qualifications to women due to flawed gender considerations. Other colleges in the

United States also refused to allow women matriculate in science faculties for no reasons at all.

Despite the marriage rule being abolished, significant stonewalls such that a regulation

stipulating that any woman who was married to a fellow scientist was not eligible for

employment in the same university, led to mass resignations from qualified women, thus

derailing their professional journey in the scientific field.

Have women received the recognition they deserved for their excellent scientific

contributions? Provide at least two different examples from the text.

Almost invariably, despite the seemingly insurmountable stonewalls and a highly

patriarchal society profoundly rigged against the female gender, women have made significant

strides in the scientific field over the years. In this regard, there has been a sustained

improvement in the number of women graduating with honors in the scientific courses across

the United States. The National Academy of Sciences has made numerous observations to the

effect that women are finally being recognized in the scientific field, and the hitherto biased

societal norms rigged against the female gender have been invariably flattened. For instance,

the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had by the turn of year 2006 in its

entire population around 51% and 35% of women pursuing sciences and engineering courses

respectively. Since the oppressive years of 1800s, the scientific landscape in the United Sates

has seen an advent of formidable women trailblazers, who have contributed immensely to

scientific innovation and attendant pedagogy. World-renowned scientists such as the self-

deprecating C.S. Wu, a tenured physician at the prestigious University of Columbia, and who

contributed immensely to the award of the 1957 Nobel peace prize to her fellow physicists Lee

and Yang, is etched in the deepest annals of scientific history. Moreover, globally acclaimed

Biochemist Viola Graham is widely remembered as the brains behind the groundbreaking

experiment by James Sumner, that culminated in the successful synthesis of Urease, that

eventually led to his award of the 1946 Nobel peace prize with two other male colleagues. The

aforementioned women are but a few who have broken cultural barriers, and archetypal

stereotypes, to make significant scientific strides in the male dominated scientific and related

research industry.
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Do women experience invisible walls in the science field today? If so, what do you think

they are?

Notwithstanding the envy-evoking strides in the scientific research and innovation field,

women across the world continue to face invisible walls that threaten to derail their successful

streak in the male dominated scientific field. Women across the globe have to contend with

overt and egregious sexual bias in terms of promotions and access to Ivy League scientific

colleges in the contemporary world. Women have to grapple with the reality that the world has

pretty much not changed in terms of gender bias, and the stonewalls that their grandmothers

had to contend with in the 18th century still exist, but not as nuanced and a little bit embellished.

Sexism has proved to be a major hindrance in women ‘scientific careers. Indeed, the

womenfolk have come to the sad reality that the world expects them to work twice as hard as

their male counterparts, ostensibly to secure a place in the high table of reputable researchers

and well paying scientific jobs. Major promotions and fellowship vacancies across various

universities globally, have been observed through scientific studies to judge women harshly,

and nip their career growth in the bud. Stereotyped perceptions and borderline misogyny, has

characterized the treatment of women in their quest to pursue excellence in the scientific field

with devastating consequences. Major structural barriers within the male dominated field have

over the years cemented the notion that cognitive abilities are the main reason why women

have not been given a voice in sciences. The peer review systems adopted by many universities

as qualification method, has invariably locked women from pursuing their science careers.

These peer reviews are mostly adjudicated by men who are profoundly prejudiced against

women, resulting to flawed admission and promotion criteria

Explain the solutions the authors suggest addressing gender inequality in science
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Policy experts and pundits posit that women have over the years borne the blunt of

sexual and gender bias, in their quest to attain career progression in the highly chauvinistic

scientific field. In this regard, various policymakers have offered practical advice on how to

mitigate or eliminate gender bias in the scientific field with tangible solutions. For instance,

structural barriers have over the years been invoked as one of the main reasons why women

have been marginalized in the scientific filed over the years. In this regard, motley of programs

and strategies designed to eliminate gender bias in sciences, and to eliminate structural barriers

therein need to be crafted and fully implemented. These programs should be designed in such a

way as to fully and candidly address the structural and systemic barriers that hinder women

development in the scientific field. Educational programs should be cleverly designed to

increase the representation of women in sciences, and subsequently increase such interest

among young girls in a view to mould world acclaimed women scientists. Building a solid

scientific background for women should be a major rallying call for such programs in building

successful female scientists. Indeed, early practices such as inducing young girls to have an

insatiable interest in sciences should be developed and funded extensively to achieve some of

these objectives. Moreover, some of these strategies should seek to address invisible barriers

such as gender bias and sexism in the scientific field, ostensibly to induce women interest in

sciences without the fear of being denigrated based on gender. Policymakers should seek to

implement various programs designed to provide women with important tools and information

regarding their choice career in sciences, ostensibly to build their knowledge and skills over

time. The formation of Empowerment, Growth and Excellence (EDGE) in leadership has over

the years provided women with an enabling mechanism on how to eliminate structural barriers.

The main areas of improvement in equipping women with the necessary skills and technical
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expertise in their scientific career would include seeking initiatives to develop senior leadership

support for corporate changes, equitable performance evaluation process, and advancement

programs for high potential women as well as career and work flexibility, ostensibly to retain

talented women

Have you experienced any barriers in terms of your major and/or career choices? How

did you overcome those barriers?

As a physics major sophomore, I have encountered motley of barriers that threatened to

derail my dream of becoming one of the best physics minds in my country. Nuances of sexism

from my classmates and my instructors have over the duration of my course unsettled me and

threatened to negatively interfere with my career progression. My enrollment in the program

was met with gawks from my male friends and fellow women, who frowned on the idea of me

taking such a technical course in the University. Most of the comments regarding my career

choice have been to the effect that my profession is rather masculine, and that I should have

chosen a more feminine course such as arts and design, business or modeling. Such comments

are rather demoralizing for young budding scientist with ambitions like me and even more

unsettling, especially when it comes from close friends and relatives. On making a choice to

join a physics class, no single individual in the faculty, encouraged me in any way to be

steadfast in my career; rather, most of the instructors in the male dominated faculty sneered at

me, and wondered loudly why such a talented and beautiful woman like me would choose a

career in physics.

Overcoming such barriers at my age has rather been difficult. In this regard, I have over the

years made a resolution to give a deaf year to such distractions, and resolutely stand up to any

hint of sexism from any one of my male friends, relatives or faculty. The sexist comments
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were rather condescending, but encouraged me to work even harder to emerge top of my class,

a fact that has over the years earned me tremendous respect across gender divides.

How Women Status have been portrayed in the Movie Hidden Figures

The movie, hidden figures feature three women of color enlisted by NASA at Langley,

as mission scientists in a highly successful space program, trying to challenge the deeply

entrenched male stereotypes in the scientific field. The movie portrays the exploits of the

various experiences of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn, in their

insatiable desire to to tackle head on various issues that derail women progression in the

scientific field, ranging from highly institutionalized racism and rampant sexism among the

NASA’s rank and file. The desire and ambitions of Mary Jackson to become a NASA engineer,

when being aware that no African American woman has ever achieved such feat in the entire

history of the hallowed space organization is mindboggling (Melfie, 2016). The movie

characterizes each woman as resolute and purpose driven, and reckons that women have the

ability to achieve and register better results than their male counterparts in any scientific field.

The three women of color in the movie are depicted as victors in the class and gender struggles,

in their quest to become experts in their choice careers. The struggles the women faced

intertwined racial and gender issues with heavy tinges of bigotry and misogyny among NASA

mail dominated engineering and space operations departments. The film brings out the

emotional and ,mental strengths if the three women, while bringing to the fore their individual

brilliance and ability to stand up to the various invisible walls rampant in NASA, and

subsequently achieving unprecedented feats in their quest to break down scientific stereotypes,

highly rigged against the female gender. The movie portrays women as being able to match

their male counterpart’s brilliance, and achieve incredible feats if a conducive environment is
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set for their success. Nevertheless, a woman is hailed as being in a position to make significant

strides in any field despite many hurdles and pitfalls set up by the heavily patriarchal society.

What struck me in the movie is the ability of women to shut down their racist coworkers at

NASA ,and eventually convince everyone that being a black woman is neither a limitation nor

a mental incapacitation to achieving greater heights in any one’s professional development.

The New York Times article portrays the resoluteness of women in achieving gender

parity in the education system over the years, as some of the most poignant moments in female

history. The various seemingly insurmountable hurdles put by men and designed to denigrate

women through misogynist tendencies and sexism, have over the years been debunked by

powerful and brave women, and who have risen to the occasion to call out instances of outright

bias against them. These developments have over the year’s paved way for thousands of

women across the globe to achieve excellence in their various endeavors. The most poignant

moment in the article in the New York Times was the writers’ ability to rise above common

stereotypes, and prove to her class that she is capable of achieving her goals, exemplified by

attaining the highest mark in her male dominated class, and graduating summa Cum Laude, to

the consternation of her male counterparts (Pollackoct, 2013). The similarity of both the New

York Times and the article in the portrayal of women is that the female gender has been judged

not based on their intelligence and wit, rather than their anatomy.

Addressing Gender Inequality in Science

The world has over the years seen a rapid rise in development of initiatives designed to

flatten the various structural barriers that derail women success in the scientific field. These

strategies have largely been aimed at achieving gender equality in the different scientific fields,

and empowering women to challenge gender stereotypes by enrolling en masse to pursue their
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desire. The Empowerment, Diversity, Growth and Excellence (EDGE) is one such initiative

that seeks to empower women in their insatiable desire to achieve academic excellence in

various scientific fields. Equipping female and male employers with the necessary tools and

infrastructure to empower the female gender is paramount in the initiatives to eliminate

structural barriers that derail women career progression (Wienclaw, 2014). In order to achieve

the objectives of these initiatives stakeholders are encouraged to engage in various

engagements that are designed to streamline the various structural barriers. On of the most

poignant initiatives designed for such an undertaking is the implementation of recruitment

practices that support equal representation of women.

One of the noblest initiatives designed to eliminate structural barriers to women

success in sciences, is initiation of programs to hire more women in scientific faculties in

different tertiary institutions globally. In this regard, positions that may arise in science

faculties should be publicly advertised and women encouraged in applying. Moreover,

selection panels in should properly constituted with an emphasis on gender parity with at least

one woman comprising the recruiting panel. The main motivation for the public advertisement

of various vacancies arising would be to eliminate the information advantage currently being

enjoyed by male candidates when it come to job vacancy awareness that is mainly disseminated

through informal sources and networks(Wienclaw, 2014). Almost invariably, stakeholders

should make concerted efforts to raise awareness about gender equity across all scientific

related disciplines, and encouraging men to embrace the inevitable idea, that women can rise up

to the highest levels of innovation, and scientific discoveries, and equal the efforts of men, if

they are put on a pedestal, and allowed to compete with their male colleagues on an equal

footing. Reputable science colleges should strive to raise awareness about gender inclusiveness
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by training the different faculties on the advantage of having women on board to show their full

potential. Indeed, such an integrated and multi-sectoral approach to engender gender balanced

scientific research sectors would be critical in empowering young women wishing to pursue

such careers. Governments and other stakeholders in the scientific field should be at the

forefront of ensuring that science and technology, is attractive and achievable for young girls

across the globe. Making such disciplines attractive to women would go a long way in ensuring

that the female gender would increase their interests in pursuing some of the numerous science

related courses across the world.

State and non-state actors should provide a healthy and conducive environment that

would be tenable in exposing young women to established role models who may include

reputable women scientist ostensibly to whet their thirst for science related courses. Such

exposure should be structured through established and regular mentorship programs, and

occasional visits by renowned women scientists to schools, to increase the interest of such

young girls in the scientific field. Major programmes should be rolled out across schools,

which should be designed to inform young women about career choices especially in pure and

applied sciences. In this regard, much emphasis should be focused on arousing young girls’

interest in science and technology fields, and encouraging them to explore the immeasurable

opportunities that exist in such careers. Science boot camps and seminars should be arranged at

a tender age at the supervision of successful women scientist to mould and condition young

women to respectable scientists in the future. Young women should also be made aware about

the treat of stereotypes, that is rife in the male dominated scientific field, and given tips on how

to deal with such affronts on their persons, and diminish the impact that such negativity may

have on their professional development.

References

Melfi, T. (2016). Hidden Figures [DVD]. Hollywood: Common Sense Media.

Pollackoct, E. (2013). Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science? New York Times, p. 1.

Wienclaw, R. (2014). Gender Roles & Equality (2nd ed., pp. 1-119). New Jersey: Salem Press.