Gender & Society in the Classroom: Gender in the Academy
Organized by: Deeb Kitchen, Florida Gulf Coast University
Updated by: Seth A. Behrends, University of Illinois – Chicago
This review covers research pertaining to gender in the academy while focusing on the relationship between knowledge and power. This collection covers both the ways gender factors into academic knowledge production as well as gender’s influence on academics’ careers. These works focus primarily on university settings and highlight the ways institutions of higher education simultaneously exhibit gender inequality within them and function to reproduce it in the societies they are part of. These inequalities are visible in current academic career paths, institutional labor practices, cultural norms, trends in scholarship, and curriculum.
Because of the authority bestowed upon academic work, particularly in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (the STEM fields) and the recognition that more contributions from women are needed, debates that often occur regarding how to incorporate and retain female participation. As a result, many of these pieces either offer prescriptions for these problems or have implications for policy makers.
Bird, Sharon R., and Laura A. Rhoton. 2021. “Seeing Isn’t Always Believing: Gender, Academic STEM, and Women Scientists’ Perceptions of Career Opportunities.” Gender & Society 35 (3): 422-448.
Studies about women’s underrepresentation in the U.S. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academic workforce have flourished in the past decade. Much of this research focuses on institutionalized gender barriers and implicit biases, consistent with theorizing about how work organizations disproportionately benefit men, white people, and other systemically advantaged groups. But to what extent do faculty most likely disadvantaged by systematic inequities actually perceive “barriers” to equity in the context of their own work lives? What might the repercussions associated with variation in perceptions about inequity be, especially within institutions of higher education actively pursuing equity agendas under such programs as the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE program? Using interview data from 53 STEM women faculty working at a university that received a 5-year NSF ADVANCE IT award, we examine the range of views held among women scientists about the extent to which opportunity and success are a function of meritocratic versus nonmeritocratic processes. Findings show that almost a third of participants held the view that opportunities and advancement are primarily a function of meritocratic processes. We discuss implications of these findings for broader institutional efforts to reduce inequities in academic STEM.
Laube, Heather. 2021. “Outsiders Within Transforming the Academy: The Unique Positionality of Feminist Sociologists.” Gender & Society 35 (3): 476-500.
Several initiatives recognize the importance of transforming institutions, not just changing individuals, to diversify STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. Universities and colleges are distinctive gendered work organizations because workers (faculty) are highly educated and have authority in hiring, evaluation, and policy (shared governance). This article explores whether feminist sociologists are particularly well suited to guide institutional change to diversify the academy. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with 24 feminist academic sociologists at the rank of associate or full professor, I analyze how their feminist and sociological identities intersect with institutional locations to create opportunities to transform the academy. Outsiders within, feminist sociologists revise and use the master’s tools to produce knowledge that improves recognition of, and ability to reduce, structural inequalities. Proficiency with these tools confers insider legitimacy and access to a “seat at the table” where disciplinary expertise and political commitments contribute to institutional change. Inevitably, these professors confront resistance, and in response develop strategies to advance their goals. Insights from feminist sociologists suggest that to transform universities to reflect the diversity of institutions and lived reality of contemporary faculty, it may be more useful to identify a set of commitments and principles that inform policies and practices, rather than specifying actions to support culture change.
Lee, Jennifer J., and Janice M. Mccabe. 2021. “Who Speaks and Who Listens: Revisiting the Chilly Climate in College Classrooms.” Gender & Society 35 (1): 32-60.
Almost 40 years ago, scholars identified a “chilly climate” for women in college classrooms. To examine whether contemporary college classrooms remain “chilly,” we conducted quantitative and qualitative observations in nine classrooms across multiple disciplines at one elite institution. Based on these 95 hours of observation, we discuss three gendered classroom participation patterns. First, on average, men students occupy classroom sonic space 1.6 times as often as women. Men also speak out without raising hands, interrupt, and engage in prolonged conversations during class more than women students. Second, style and tone also differ. Men’s language is assertive, whereas women’s is hesitant and apologetic. Third, professors’ interventions and different structures of classrooms can alter existing gender status hierarchies. Extending Ridgeway’s gender system framework to college classrooms, we discuss how these gendered classroom participation patterns perpetuate gender status hierarchies. We thus argue that the chilly climate is an underexplored mechanism for the stalled gender revolution.
Lockhart, Jeffrey W. 2021. “Paradigms of Sex Research and Women in Stem.” Gender & Society 35 (3): 449-475.
Scientists’ identities and social locations influence their work, but the content of scientific work can also influence scientists. Theory from feminist science studies, autoethnographic accounts, interviews, and experiments indicate that the substance of scientific research can have profound effects on how scientists are treated by colleagues and their sense of belonging in science. I bring together these disparate literatures under the framework of professional cultures. Drawing on the Survey of Earned Doctorates and the Web of Science, I use computational social science tools to argue that the way scientists write about sex in their research influences the future gender ratio of PhDs awarded across 53 subfields of the life sciences over a span of 47 years. Specifically, I show that a critical paradigm of “feminist biology” that seeks to de-essentialize sex and gender corresponds to increases in women’s graduation rates, whereas “sex difference” research—sometimes called “neurosexism” because of its emphasis on essential, categorical differences—corresponds to decreases in women’s graduation rates in most fields.
Mcquillan, Julia, and Nestor Hernandez. 2021. “Real-Life Conundrums in the Struggle for Institutional Transformation.” Gender & Society 35 (3): 300-329.
Intersecting systems of inequality (i.e., gender and race/ethnicity) are remarkably resistant to change. Many universities, however, seek National Science Foundation Institutional Transformation awards to change processes, procedures, and cultures to make science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments more inclusive. In this article we describe a case study with observations for eight years of before (2000–2007), five during (2008–2013), and seven after (2014–2020) intensive efforts to increase women through reducing barriers and increasing access to women. Finally, we reflect on flawed assumptions built into the proposal, the slow and uneven change in the proportion of women over time, the strengths and weaknesses of numeric assessments, and the value of a longer view for seeing how seeds planted with promising practices initiated during the award may end with the funding but can reemerge and bear fruit when faculty who engage in equity work are in positions of authority later in their careers.
Misra, Joya, Alexandra Kuvaeva, Kerryann O’meara, Dawn Kiyoe Culpepper, and Audrey Jaeger. 2021. “Gendered and Racialized Perceptions of Faculty Workloads.” Gender & Society 35 (3): 358-394.
Faculty workload inequities have important consequences for faculty diversity and inclusion. On average, women faculty spend more time engaging in service, teaching, and mentoring, while men, on average, spend more time on research, with women of color facing particularly high workload burdens. We explore how faculty members perceive workload in their departments, identifying mechanisms that can help shape their perceptions of greater equity and fairness. White women perceive that their departments have less equitable workloads and are less committed to workload equity than white men. Women of color perceive that their departments are less likely to credit their important work through departmental rewards systems than white men. Workload transparency and clarity, and consistent approaches to assigning classes, advising, and service, can reduce women’s perceptions of inequitable and unfair workloads. Our research suggests that departments can identify and put in place a number of key practices around workload that will improve gendered and racialized perceptions of workload.
Nelson, Laura K., and Kathrin Zippel. 2021. “From Theory to Practice and Back: How the Concept of Implicit Bias was Implemented in Academe, and What this Means for Gender Theories of Organizational Change.” Gender & Society 35 (3): 330-357.
Implicit bias is one of the most successful cases in recent memory of an academic concept being translated into practice. Its use in the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program—which seeks to promote gender equality in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) careers through institutional transformation—has raised fundamental questions about organizational change. How do advocates translate theories into practice? What makes some concepts more tractable than others? What happens to theories through this translation process? We explore these questions using the ADVANCE program as a case study. Using an inductive, theory-building approach and combination of computational and qualitative methods, we investigate how the concept of implicit bias was translated into practice through the ADVANCE program and identify five key features that made implicit bias useful as a change framework in the academic STEM setting. We find that the concept of implicit bias works programmatically because it is (1) demonstrable, (2) relatable, (3) versatile, (4) actionable, and (5) impartial. While enabling the concept’s diffusion, these characteristics also limit its scope. We reflect on implications for gender theories of organizational change and for practitioners.
Thébaud, Sarah, and Catherine J. Taylor. 2021. “The Specter of Motherhood: Culture and the Production of Gendered Career Aspirations in Science and Engineering.” Gender & Society 35 (3): 395-421.
Why are young women less likely than young men to persist in academic science and engineering? Drawing on 57 in-depth interviews with PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in the United States, we describe how, in academic science and engineering, motherhood is constructed in opposition to professional legitimacy, and as a subject of fear, repudiation, and public controversy. We call this the “specter of motherhood.” This specter disadvantages young women and amplifies anticipatory concerns about combining an academic career with motherhood. By specifying (1) the content of cultural discourses about motherhood in academic workplaces and (2) the processes by which these ideas circulate, produce disadvantage, and inform young, childless scientists and engineers’ career plans, our findings offer novel insight into mechanisms contributing to inequality in academic careers.
Ispa-Landa, Simone, and Mariana Oliver. 2020. “Hybrid Femininities: Making Sense of Sorority Rankings and Reputation.” Gender & Society 34 (6): 893-921.
Gender researchers have only recently begun to identify how women perceive and explain the costs and benefits associated with different femininities. Yet status hierarchies among historically white college sororities are explicit and cannot be ignored, forcing sorority women to grapple with constructions of feminine worth. Drawing on interviews with women in these sororities (N = 53), we are able to capture college women’s attitudes toward status rankings that prioritize adherence to narrow models of gender complementarity. Sorority chapters were ranked according to women’s perceived heterosexual appeal to elite men. Women believed that top-ranked sororities conferred social power whereas middle- and bottom-ranked sororities offered greater freedom from policing over members’ bodies, fashion, and socializing. However, middle- and bottom-ranked sororities sometimes sought to rise in the rankings. When this occurred, existing members were marginalized, and a new pledge class with a greater tolerance for socializing with high-status “rapey” fraternities was sought. Women’s discussions of sorority rankings show evidence of a hybrid femininity that fuses practices from traditional models of gender complementarity and more recent models of women’s empowerment.
Roos, Hannelore, Jelle Mampaey, Jeroen Huisman, and Joost Luyckx. 2020. “The Failure of Gender Equality Initiatives in Academia: Exploring Defensive Institutional Work in Flemish Universities.” Gender & Society 34 (3): 467-495.
Although a large number of studies have explored the main causes of gender inequality in academia, less attention has been given to the processes underlying the failure of gender equality initiatives to enhance gender representation, especially at the professorial level. We offer a critical discourse analysis of recently promulgated gender policy documents of the five Flemish universities, and demonstrate that defensive institutional work is a fundamental process underlying resistance to gender equality in the academic profession. That is, powerful organizational actors resist gender change by (un)intentionally deploying a combination of discursive strategies that legitimate what we describe as non–time-bound gender equality initiatives: The expected outcomes are undetermined in time, and they delegitimate concrete, time-bound measures that define specific outcomes against well-defined deadlines. By explicitly bringing a temporal dimension into our analysis, we argue that defensive institutional work deflects questions regarding what ought to be achieved when, and contributes to the slow pace of gender change in academia.
Dalessandro, Cristen, Laurie James-Hawkins, and Christie Sennot. 2019. “Strategic Silence: College Men and Hegemonic Masculinity in Contraceptive Decision Making.” Gender & Society 33 (5): 772-794.
Condom use among college men in the United States is notoriously erratic, yet we know little about these men’s approaches to other contraceptives. In this paper, accounts from 44 men attending a university in the western United States reveal men’s reliance on culturally situated ideas about gender, social class, race, and age in assessing the risk of pregnancy and STI acquisition in sexual encounters with women. Men reason that race- and class-privileged college women are STI-free, responsible for contraception, and will pursue abortion services if necessary. Since men expect women will take responsibility, they often stay silent about condoms and other contraceptives in sexual encounters—a process we term “strategic silence.” Men’s strategic silence helps uphold local constructions of hegemonic masculinity that prioritize men’s sexual desires and protects these constructions by subtly shifting contraceptive and sexual health responsibility onto women. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of men’s expectations of women for upholding constructions of hegemonic masculinity, which legitimate gender inequality in intimacy and are related to men’s underestimation of the risks associated with condom-free sex.
Ispa-Landa, Simone, and Sara Thomas. 2019. “Race, Gender, and Emotion Work Among School Principals.”
Researchers have highlighted how gendered associations of femininity with emotional labor can complicate professional women’s attempts to exercise managerial authority. However, current understandings of how race and gender intersect in professional women’s emotional labor remain limited. We draw on 132 interviews from eight white women and 13 women of color who are novice principals. White women began the principalship wanting to establish themselves as emotionally supportive leaders who were open to others’ influence. They viewed emotional labor as existing in tension with showing authority as a leader. Over time, however, most white women reported adopting more directive practices. By contrast, women of color reported beginning the principalship with a more directive, take-charge leadership style. They viewed emotional labor and authority as part of a blended project and did not talk about these two aspects of leadership as existing in tension. Over time, their self-reported leadership style changed little. We analyze our findings in light of recent theorizing about gender and intersectionality.
Miller, Candace, and Josipa Roksa. 2019. “Balancing Research and Service in Academia: Gender, Race, and Laboratory Tasks” Gender & Society 34 (1): 131-152.
Our study highlights specific ways in which race and gender create inequality in the workplace. Using in-depth interviews with 67 biology PhD students, we show how engagement with research and service varies by both gender and race. By considering the intersection between gender and race, we find not only that women biology graduate students do more service than men, but also that racial and ethnic minority men do more service than white men. White men benefit from a combination of racial and gender privilege, which places them in the most advantaged position with respect to protected research time and opportunities to build collaborations and networks beyond their labs. Racial/ethnic minority women emerge as uniquely disadvantaged in terms of their experiences relative to other groups. These findings illuminate how gendered organizations are also racialized, producing distinct experiences for women and men from different racial groups, and thus contribute to theorizing the intersectional nature of inequality in the workplace.
Wingfield, Adia H. 2019. “‘Reclaiming Our Time’: Black Women, Resistance, and Rising Inequality: SWS Presidential Lecture.” Gender & Society 33 (3): 345-362.
In this presidential address, I use the metaphor of “reclaiming my time” as a framework that highlights the ways black women are playing an essential role transforming workplaces, media, and politics in the current moment. I consider how black feminist thought provides a useful starting point for assessing these efforts, and I examine how black women’s leadership offers a blueprint for how other groups also can restructure social institutions in an era of increasing polarization and inequality.
Zambrana, Ruth E., and Mazine Baca Zinn. 2019. “Chicanas/Latinas Advance Intersectional Thought and Practice.” Gender & Society 33 (5): 677-701.
Despite the considerable body of scholarship and practice on interconnected systems of dominance and its effects on women in different social locations, Chicanas remain “outside the frame” of mainstream academic feminist dialogues. This article provides an overview of the contributions of Chicana intersectional thought, research, and activism. We highlight four major scholarly areas of contribution: borders, identities, institutional inequalities, and praxis. Although not a full mapping of the Chicana/Latina presence in intersectionality, it proffers the distinctive features and themes defining the intersectional terrain of Chicana feminism.
Bailey, Moya, and Izetta Autumn Mobley. 2018. “Work in the Intersections: A Black Feminist Disability Framework.” Gender & Society 33 (1): 19-40.
A Black feminist disability framework allows for methodological considerations of the intersectional nature of oppression. Our work in this article is twofold: to acknowledge the need to consider disability in Black Studies and race in Disability Studies, and to forward an intersectional framework that considers race, gender, and disability to address the gaps in both Black Studies and Disability Studies. By employing a Black feminist disability framework, scholars of African American and Black Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Disability Studies have a flexible and useful methodology through which to consider the historical, social, cultural, political, and economic reverberations of disability.
Davis, Alexander K. 2018. “Toward Exclusion Through Inclusion: Engendering Reputation with Gender-Inclusive Facilities at Colleges and Universities in the United States, 2001-2013.” Gender & Society 32 (3): 321-347.
Ample sociological evidence demonstrates that binary gender ideologies are an intractable part of formal organizations and that transgender issues tend to be marginalized by a wide range of social institutions. Yet, in the last 15 years, more than 200 colleges and universities have attempted to ameliorate such realities by adopting gender-inclusive facilities in which students of any gender can share residential and restroom spaces. What cultural logics motivate these transformations? How can their emergence be reconciled with the difficulty of altering the gender order? Using an original sample of 2,036 campus newspaper articles, I find that support for inclusive facilities frames such spaces as a resource through which an institution can claim improved standing in the field of higher education. This process of engendering reputation allows traditional gender separation in residential arrangements to be overcome, but it also situates institutional responsiveness to transgender issues as a means of enhancing a college or university’s public prestige. This, in turn, produces novel status systems in the field of higher education—albeit ones that perpetuate familiar forms of institutional and cultural exclusion.
Ferber, Abby L. 2018. “Are You Willing to Die for This Work?” Public Targeted Online Harassment in Higher Education: SWS Presidential Address.” Gender & Society 32 (3): 301-320.
This address examines a growing problem in academia: the public targeted online harassment of faculty. This harassment, organized and carried out by the alt-right and supported by other sectors of the right wing across the spectrum from mainstream to extreme, are intended to silence faculty and censor the curriculum. I examine a range of contextual factors that have facilitated this phenomenon, and discuss the experiences of seven other people, as well as myself, all with connections to higher education, that have experienced this unique form of attack. These conversations provide insight into the patterns evident in the form of the attack, individual and university responses, and informed the creation of lists of recommendations for those experiencing, preparing, and responding to attacks.
Park, Juyeon. 2018. “Public Fathering, Private Mothering: Gendered Transnational Parenting and Class Reproduction Among Elite Korean Students.” Gender & Society 32 (4): 563-586.
Drawing on 68 interviews with South Korean students at elite U.S. colleges, this article examines the intersectional power of gender and class in elite transnational parenting—a family strategy for class reproduction. Well-educated, stay-at-home mothers intensively managed their children’s school activities, often relying on gender-segregated networks, mostly during early school years. By contrast, cosmopolitan professional fathers heavily engaged in guiding their children’s education abroad and career preparation in later years, using their class resources (i.e., English proficiency, professional careers, and social networks of other elites). In high-achieving children’s narratives, mothers’ lifelong care for and management of their private life was undervalued and criticized, while fathers’ growing involvement in their higher education and career was highly valued and appreciated. The elite fathers’ occasional yet detailed involvement challenges the dichotomy that has long stereotyped Korean—or East Asian—mothers as overinvolved and fathers as distant in their children’s lives, especially with regard to education. Gender, through intensive parenting, reinforces and reproduces class disparity between elite couples and within their families.
Russell, S. Garnett, Julia C. Lerch, and Christine Min Wotipka. 2018. “The Making of a Human Rights Issue: A Cross-National Analysis of Gender-Based Violence in Textbooks, 1950-2011.” Gender & Society 32 (5): 713-738.
In the past few decades, awareness around gender-based violence (GBV) has expanded on a global scale with increased attention in global treaties, organizations, and conferences. Previously a taboo topic, it is now viewed as a human rights violation in the broader world culture. Drawing on a quantitative analysis of 568 textbooks from 76 countries from across the world, we examine the extent to which this growing global attention to GBV has filtered down into national educational curricula. We find that textbook discussions of GBV are more prevalent in the post-1993 period and are linked to discussions of women’s rights. In addition, discussions of GBV are more common in countries with more linkages to the global women’s movement. Findings from our study underscore the influence of the women’s rights movement and the radical feminist perspective on the reframing of GBV as a human rights issue.
Fox, Mary Franklin, Gerhard Sonnert, and Irina Nikiforova. 2011. “Programs for Undergraduate Women in Science and Engineering: Issues, Problems and Solutions.” Gender & Society 25 (5): 589-615.
Using survey data gathered from 49 directors of undergraduate-level programs in the U.S. for women in science and engineering, these authors examine how such programs articulate and frame existing issues and problems, as well as solutions and strategies for improving access and participation for women. They identify four patterns: definitions of issues women in science and engineering must deal with, solutions put forward, stated goals as well the directors’ view on achieving them, and structural features of the programs in relation to their broader institutional setting of higher education. In general, they find that directors frame the subjects in terms of individual women, not as the products of relationships that are formed and influenced by the organizational or institutional contexts they are parts of. These findings illustrate some of the hurdles programs designed to enhance female participation in the sciences and engineering face. Moreover, it suggests reasons as to why so many of them come up short and fail to realize their goals.
Rhoton, Laura A. 2011. “Distancing as a Gendered Barrier: Understanding Women Scientists’ Gender Practices.” Gender & Society 25 (6): 696-716.
Using interview data, the author explores how the gender practices of female scientists perpetuate and heighten gender barriers to advancement and acceptance within their disciplines. Women working in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) often find that cultural norms, expectations, and the image of the ideal scientist as dispassionate, objective and career-oriented promote behaviors that are most readily associated with men, devalue femininity and therefore restrict the range of acceptable behaviors for those working in the field. Through developing professional identities that make use of these norms and expectations, female scientists distinguish themselves from women who do not embody them. This is done by distancing themselves from practices deemed feminine and denying the existence or prevalence of gender inequality. By doing this, women reinforce the marginalization of other women as well as their work. This presents a contradiction. Although these gender behaviors may help to advance these women’s careers, they also entrench and strengthen the barriers to their success as female scientists. Ultimately, this functions to hamper change efforts as well as to maintain and legitimize gender inequality within the STEM fields.
Winslow, Sarah. 2010. “Gender Inequality and Time Allocations Among Academic Faculty.” Gender & Society 24 (6): 769-793.
This article investigates gender inequality in academia by comparing male and female faculty members’ time allocation. It focuses on teaching and research, how these are conceptualized and which they prefer. Winslow draws upon survey data collected from a national sample of postsecondary faculty in 1999. The author measures actual time allocation (percentage of time spent teaching and percentage of time spent conducting research) time allocation preferences (percentage of their workweeks faculty members would like to spend on teaching and research) time allocation mismatches (differences between preference and actual time spent on teaching and research) and sex (measured as male or female). The author controls for various aspects of work such as rank, discipline, and type of institution. The results of Winslow’s analysis show: (1) women would prefer to devote more of their time to teaching as opposed to men who favor research; (2) women actually spend more time teaching, and these differences cannot be attributed to educational attainment or types of institutions; (3) there is a greater difference between women’s preferred time allocations than men’s. These finding shed light on issues of gender inequality with regards to job satisfaction, productivity, and faculty recruitment and retention.
Whittington, Kjersten Bunker, and Laurel Smith-Doerr. 2008. “Women Inventors in Context: Disparities in Patenting Across Academia and Industry.” Gender & Society 22 (2): 194-218.
In this paper Whittington and Smith-Doer examine the sex differences in commercial productivity of scientists in relation to the institutional contexts they work within. They measure productivity through patenting rates. This is research expands previous research that primarily focuses on academic settings and characteristics of individual scientists by focusing on how organizational logic perpetuates inequalities among men and women. In general, data show that women are less likely to patent than their male colleagues, but when examining institutional settings, namely biotechnology firms, that feature “flatter, more flexible, network-based organizational structures” than academia or most industry, these differences disappear. Possible reasons for this are that flatter social relations provide for greater levels of teamwork that enhances the retention and therefore performance of women scientists, flatter social relations reduce discrepancies in the distribution of resources needed to conduct work, and these settings provide more management opportunities for females than academia which allows greater access to collaboration partners and information on the patenting process. This research has implications for all those making efforts to increase women’s participation and professional success in the sciences, but it also has ramifications for society more broadly. If we are to accept that the patented products produced will benefit society then it is important, these authors argue, to understand how to create a population of practitioners and inventors that more closely resembles the population as a whole.
Leahey, Erin. 2006. “Gender Differences in Productivity: Research Specialization as a Missing Link.” Gender & Society 20 (6): 754-780.
In this article, Leahey investigates the significance of research specialization in explaining gender differences in productivity levels among academic scientists. Her basic premise is that specialization as a variable has not received sufficient attention from scholars examining how gender influences academic careers. Instead, they have focused more on institutional-level factors. What is more, work examining specialization tends to concentrate on areas of specialization rather than on the extent of specialization, regardless of field of study. Using sociology and linguistics as the windows through which she looks, the author studies how frequently researchers engage in inquiry on the same substantive issues. She finds that women’s bodies of work are characterized by more breadth than their male colleagues. Women in academia specialize less than men do which diminishes their productivity. These measures of productivity are limited, and this study neglects other effects of specialization on matters such as institutional mobility, visibility in the field, job offers, salary, or career satisfaction. Leahey recognizes that more research on this topic that examines different outcomes is needed in order to craft a theory of specialization in work or to inform policy or career planning projects.
Nunez, Marta. 2003. “Gender Studies in Cuba: Methodological Approaches, 1974-2001.” Gender & Society 17 (1): 7-32.
Through interviews with twenty-four scholars studying gender in Havana, Cuba over the last quarter of the twentieth century, Nunez documents the various approaches social scientists use. She focuses on their conceptualizations of gender, their methodological orientations, the specific methods they use, no-Cuban authors who influence their work, and the social context within which their research emerged. She focuses more on how they do their work rather than on the content of it. This analysis is admittedly collaborative. She allowed her participants to influence this research while it was being produced. For example, she modified her interviews when they suggested alternative questions. Nunez finds that the marginalization of women and homosexuals is the primary motivator for these scholars to study of gender. They see their research as part of a struggle for social justice. They also aim to develop a scientific understanding of society, which they see as aiding in their cause. All of the participants adhere to an eclectic approach to research, drawing on an array of literature and experiences. They are all familiar with the Soviet versions of Marxism, but they expressed a preference for drawing upon the classical and contemporary Marxist works. The participants almost universally employ both quantitative and qualitative methods, but they favor qualitative approaches. This is because they see them as superior for understanding subjective experiences. Quantitative data is typically used to contextualize their qualitative research. Nunez concludes with methodological suggestions her participants offer for students of gender: view gender as relational and embedded in power structures, avoid forcing your ideologies on participants in order to privilege their role in the research process, use multiple methods, and be open to changing your mind.
Fox, Mary Frank. 2001. “Women, Science, and Academia: Graduate Education and Careers.” Gender & Society 15 (5): 654-666.
This article utilizes academic science as a site for examining gender inequality within society because of the influence it wields in shaping social relations and the stake governments have in it as a result of this influence and the costs it entails. Furthermore, since the qualities of rationality, objectivity and control that are closely associated with scientific inquiry are more typically ascribed to men than to women, it simultaneously reflects and reinforces gender inequality. The author explores the social and organizational context of science in relation to gender and social standing by addressing three questions. First, what is the status of women in scientific careers and what is the role of graduate education in these careers? Second, what are the implications for an analysis of gender? Third, where and how can we intervene? The results show that in spite of increasing numbers of females earning doctorate degrees in the sciences, from top tier schools, they have not advanced to the highest professional ranks at the same pace. This discrepancy occurs across all scientific fields, but it is most pronounced in the physical sciences. Women achieve full professorships in psychology at nearly twice the rate as in the physical sciences. The gender dynamics in academic departments, research groups, and advisor-student relationships all privilege men in ways that minimize women’s contributions and achievements by favoring standards most closely associated with men. All of this limits women’s abilities to demonstrate success in their fields and consequently, in society. The interventions seen as most promising are those that reorganize academic departments, establish new standards for rewarding and sanctioning work, and redistribute resources.
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