Sociology 1 Final Research Paper PDF

Preview

Summary

Sociology 1 Final Essay, Fall 2017
Professor Isaac Speer
Prompt: Apply a sociological perspective to a current social issue....

Description

Sociological Pressures on Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Sociology 1 University of California, Los Angeles

The rates in which women receive degrees and move on to work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are much lower than that of their male

counterparts. In the past as well as in recent years, STEM fields have seen significantly higher percentages in male participation than that of female participation. Although this gap has diminished over time, there is still a separation in rates between the two genders that is not representative of the gap in the workforce or higher education as a whole. The structural perspective can be used to analyze and help explain possible sources of this phenomenon. Under this perspective, objective social structures influence what we think and do, ultimately shaping who we are as individuals (Speer, 2017). Although there is some ability for these to be changed over time, the influence of the structures on individuals, in many cases, is much higher than the influence of a single individual on the structures. These very social creations could be a factor in driving many women away from STEM education and STEM fields entirely. STEM refers to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, yet there are no clear guidelines as to which specific degrees and areas of education are under the STEM umbrella. The Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration defines STEM jobs and corresponding degree fields “to include professional and technical support occupations in the fields of computer science and mathematics, engineering, and life and physical sciences” (Langdon, McKittrick, Beede, Khan & Doms, 2011), and this paper will follow the same definition unless otherwise noted. According to this department, in 2009, 47 percent of STEM employment was in mathematics and computer technology, about 33 percent was in engineering, 12 percent in physical and life sciences, and 8 percent in managerial positions. According to Langdon et al. (2011), STEM fields have some of the highest education rates, where “[m]ore than two-thirds of STEM workers have at least a college degree, compared to less than one-third of non-STEM workers” (p. 1). There is also a tendency for those with high

school diplomas or less to end up in non-STEM jobs, while those who have completed higher education typically pursue careers in STEM. Less than one-quarter of individuals with a high school diploma or less occupy STEM employment than those in non-STEM fields, whereas over twice the number of individuals with bachelor’s and master’s degrees hold STEM positions than those in non-STEM areas. This correlation between STEM education and employment emphasizes the importance of pursuing a degree for those who wish to obtain occupations in STEM fields. It is possible that women are not taking part in the STEM workforce due to lower education rates overall. This is not the case, however, as the total percentage of women who have completed four years of college or more in the US in 2016 was 33.7 percent, which is higher than that of men at 33.2 percent (“Percentage of the U.S. population,” n.d.). However, from 1940 to about 1980, the gap in these percentages was large, where only about forty percent of the population who completed four or more years of college were women, according to the same article. The rise in women’s education rates over time displays how women have gained equality in education, leading to a smaller gender gap in workforce participation rates today. Women today tend to pursue degrees in the STEM field less often than men. “While more than 56 percent of college students on U.S. campuses are female, the percentages of women earning degrees in the fields collectively known as STEM hover at less than half that rate” (“STEM monologues,” 2017). This rate has risen over time, however, as there has been “an 8.2 percent increase in women receiving both master’s and doctorate degrees in engineering from 2004 to 2014” (Nguyen, 2017). Although engineering fields alone do not describe STEM as a whole, engineering is a large STEM field and can be used as an indicator of the trends within STEM.

The small percentage of women completing higher education in STEM fields provides a possible explanation why there are fewer women in the STEM workplace than men. Statistically, STEM occupations rely directly upon higher education. Since there are much lower percentages of women obtaining degrees in STEM field education than other areas, there are lower proportions of women working in STEM fields. “In the workplace, women represent nearly half of the U.S. workforce but account for just 28.4 percent of American scientists and engineers, according to the National Science Foundation” (“STEM monologues,” 2017). “In the United States, only 1 in every 25 engineers was female in 1986” (Carr-Elsing, 1997). Slight increases in the proportions of women in STEM occupations have been seen over the last few decades, but there is still a significant rift between participation rates of men and women. The rates for women rose from 22.9 percent in 1993 to 27.5 percent in 2010 (“Has employment,” n.d.), leaving women outnumbered over two-and-a-half to one in the workplace only seven years ago. Although this calculation factors in the rates for social scientists and psychologists, going against previous definitions of STEM occupations, the increasing trend is not impacted. Social science and psychology contain the highest proportions of women according to this data, resulting in lower percentages when calculating women in only STEM fields. Along with this, computer, mathematical sciences, and engineering sit at the lowest rates for women of the study, yet are the largest fields within STEM. Women have been underrepresented in the STEM workforce and in STEM education over time. In the past, women had lower participation rates than men in the entire US workforce as well as in higher education, but this gap has reduced. Today, the rates for both workforce participation and education are about equal for men and women. Over the same period of time, the gap has closed slightly in STEM areas, but the rates have never been close to equal.

The structural perspective is a sociological perspective describing how social structures exist in society and influence individuals. The structures do not necessarily create the individuals, but “shape how the individuals think and act” (Speer, 2017). The structures are objective, meaning that they do not exist within the mind of the individual, and originate as creations of human thought that have developed into some real aspect of society. Due to their objectivity, they cannot be changed by the thoughts of an individual; in many cases, it takes a powerful group of individuals to change a social structure. By definition, power is “the ability of a person or group to carry out their will despite resistance by others” (Speer, 2017). The structural perspective is illustrated by Peter Berger (1963) in his Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective and C. Wright Mills (1959) in The Sociological Imagination. Society imposes social control on individuals, according to Berger (1963), in order to “bring recalcitrant members back into line” (p. 68). The methods of social control range from physical violence to the threat of losing livelihood or profit to going against an individual’s morals or customs. These morals and customs are structures in themselves, as they are merely ways of thinking established in the past. Written rules and social norms are also enforced through social control, and play a huge role in influencing members of contemporary society. According to Berger (1963), social structures are systems of institutions: “distinctive complex[es] of social actions” (p. 87). Institutions influence members of society on an individual level, whereas social structures influence society as a whole. Berger (1963) also explains how society is organized in levels of “power, privilege, or prestige” (p. 78) through social stratification. Western social stratification centers around the class system, where individuals display their class through status symbolism and material goods. Individuals at the upper tiers of

the social stratification ladder tend to have more power than those at the bottom, and the levels of social stratification seem to influence an individual’s nature. Individuals become members of society through a process called socialization. There are two phases of socialization, primary and secondary, in which individuals learn the social guidelines of society and the norms of different social groups. Primary socialization occurs through the development of speech, morals, and customs taught mainly by an individual’s family, whereas secondary socialization occurs later in life, whenever he or she enters a new social situation. Once passing through secondary socialization, the individual can then identify themselves as part of the group. This secondary process is never perfect, however, and in some cases the individual can be rejected from associating with the group. The structural perspective can be used to understand why there are significantly lower percentages of women both in STEM education and in the workforce than men. The institutions in place have power over the individuals in these fields, like any, and can pressure individuals to perhaps pursue interests in other areas. Social control keeping women from these areas in STEM are enforced through social norms as well as the threat of an employer losing profit margins. Failed socialization of women in early STEM education may also be a contributor to the lower proportion of women in STEM occupations today. Since the mid-twentieth century, women have had statistically lower participation rates than men in STEM fields. Historic rates such as these have institutional power in themselves, exerting social pressure on women to not join the field in the first place. As a minority group in the area, women might feel as if they have less power in voicing their findings and justifying their belonging in the workplace, as well as in education. “Michelle, a recent engineering management graduate, describes her struggles with ‘imposter syndrome’ -- the notion that one's

accomplishments are rooted in luck, or other external factors” (“STEM monologues,” 2017, para. 8). This general feeling is a result of social control through norms put in place by women having historically lower rates than men in the field, as well as stigmas against women’s capabilities themselves. A struggle for women to go through secondary socialization into STEM-related topics before pursuing higher education could result in women pursuing degrees in other areas. Looking at the early stages of a woman’s life, socialization occurring within the family could play a role as the tendency for girls to have toys related to aspects of STEM is much lower than that of boys. According to Bateman (2017), “[r]esearch by the IET found 31% of Stem toys are listed as ‘for boys’, compared with just 11% for girls” (para. 15). This reflects the social expectation for boys to grow up into STEM fields more frequently than women, and this expectation could be discouraging girls from taking interest initially. Once a woman is in the process of joining the workforce, the social forces against socialization can be much greater. Employers might hire fewer women due to discriminatory bias emerging from existing norms, as well as social control on the employers from the fear of losing profit. Laws surrounding maternity leave, stating that employees must be permitted to have “twelve workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth” (Family and Medical Leave Act, n.d.), might push employers toward hiring a man over a woman, especially in fields where deadlines are of utmost importance. The male-dominated workplace dynamic might keep women from socializing with coworkers as much, thus preventing them from achieving secondary socialization and being able to identify as part of the workgroup.

In both the past and in recent years, women have been entering the STEM workforce and education fields at much lower rates than men. The division in rates for the entire workforce and higher education have closed, but the gap still prevails in STEM fields. These trends can be described with aspects of the structural perspective, where social structures created in the past shape how an individual sees the world and ultimately behaves. An increase in women’s participation rates in both STEM and in other fields over the last few decades could be due to new social structures being established. Having an equal number of women in the STEM workforce and education fields as men is becoming more of a norm, and as more women join, their power increases. Social control keeping women out of these areas is thus weakened, and women gain institutional power over time. The social structures surrounding STEM education and the STEM workplace push many women out of these areas, as women showing interest in these areas tends to go against social norms. These norms are ingrained into young girls through toys, as well as in the heightened difficulty for women to socialize in STEM education, social situations, and work areas. Women are gaining power in the field over time through numbers, and as more and more women join these fields, the norms are reestablished in their favor. The gender gap in STEM is therefore closing and will continue to close quicker as time progresses.

References Bateman, J. (2017, December 1). Closing the tech gender gap starts in childhood; From toys to

language, teaching girls basic skills and busting gender myths from an early age could encourage more women into tech careers. London, England: The Guardian. Retrieved from https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1516831&crid=6fba8734-f53b-4577be5a-a7d89f4a0a69&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn %3AcontentItem%3A5R31-79C1-JCJY-G3P2-00000-00&pddocid=urn%3AcontentItem %3A5R31-79C1-JCJY-G3P2-0000000&pdcontentcomponentid=138620&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=t7_k&e arg=sr0&prid=598dd4c5-4ebc-4c89-bd54-aa75002ba6a7 Beede, D., Julian, T., Langdon, D., McKittrick, G., Khan, B., & Doms, M. (2011, August). Women in STEM: A gender gap to innovation. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration. Retrieved from http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/womeninstemagaptoinnovation8311.pdf Berger, P. L. (1963). Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. New York, NY: Doubleday. Carr-Elsing, D. (1997, January 9). Designing the future; engineering fields are opening up for women. Madison, WI: Capital Times. Retrieved from https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1516831&crid=e51cf582-7da4-4632-b392b3f8c162c1c4&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn %3AcontentItem%3A3SD5-BC90-0094-435Y-00000-00&pddocid=urn%3AcontentItem %3A3SD5-BC90-0094-435Y-0000000&pdcontentcomponentid=145452&pdteaserkey=sr1&pditab=allpods&ecomp=t7_k&e arg=sr1&prid=7f7c6080-3a2b-4e73-ab4e-f6adebef0a85 Family and Medical Leave Act (n.d.). Washington, DC: Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of

Labor. Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/ Has employment of women and minorities in S&E jobs increased? (n.d.). Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/sei/edTool/data/workforce-07.html Langdon, D., McKittrick, G., Beede, D., Khan, B., & Doms, M. (2011, July). STEM: Good jobs now and for the future. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration. Retrieved from http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/stemfinalyjuly14_1.pdf Nguyen, T. (2017, November 3). Confronting a stubborn system: The STEM pipeline for women engineers. Los Angeles, CA: Daily Trojan: University of Southern California. Retrieved from https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1516831&crid=72f3b4bb-98a0-4e7faee2-6deffd2f0f91&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn %3AcontentItem%3A5PW1-VWX1-JBSN-32JN-00000-00&pddocid=urn %3AcontentItem%3A5PW1-VWX1-JBSN-32JN-0000000&pdcontentcomponentid=172244&pdteaserkey=sr1&pditab=allpods&ecomp=t7_k&e arg=sr1&prid=5e9ea290-f14c-411e-953c-57039267e972

Percentage of the U.S. population who have completed four years of college or more from 1940 to 2016, by gender. (n.d.). Washington, DC: US Census Bureau. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/184272/educational-attainment-of-college-diploma-orhigher-by-gender/

Speer, I. (2017). Sociology 1 lecture 2 – The structural perspective. [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://moodle2.sscnet.ucla.edu/course/view/17F-SOCIOL1-2?section=3 STEM monologues depicts hurdles for women in science, tech, engineering and math -- in their own words. (2017, November 11). Rolla, MO: Targeted News Service. Retrieved from https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1516831&crid=25810247-652f-4a17924d-f44ba4f561f5&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn %3AcontentItem%3A5PXS-4MF1-DYG2-R03S-00000-00&pddocid=urn %3AcontentItem%3A5PXS-4MF1-DYG2-R03S-0000000&pdcontentcomponentid=299219&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=t7_k&e arg=sr0&prid=5e9ea290-f14c-411e-953c-57039267e972...