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  • Item type:Publication,
    Female Authorship in “Women in STEM” fields: A bibliometric Analysis Open PDF 
    (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2026)
    Swanson, Morgan E
    ;
    Liebl, Andrea L
    Women in STEM and STEM-related fields face many issues preventing their sustained inclusion and success, from as early as childhood. Many issues persist into adulthood and careers, including pay disparities, hostile workplace interactions, workload imbalances, and uneven expectations in domestic roles. A growing body of literature seeks to address and analyze female disparities by studying and publishing research related to societal and cultural issues faced by women in STEM. However, the gender of the authors of literature focusing on this type of research also matters as a woman's experience in STEM might provide a different context; equally, male allyship is imperative to furthering gains made in the field. To determine what proportion of authors publishing on female disparity in STEM fields are women, we employed a large-scale bibliometric study to examine the trends in the proportion of three metrics of female authorship on publications related to "Women in STEM" topics; specifically, we analyzed the total female authors, female first authors, and female last authors of 7240 published manuscripts. Literature published between 2000 and 2024 was accessed using a search engine with nine search terms related to issues facing women in STEM, including terms about gender parity, gender inequity, gender attrition, pay gaps, the leaky pipeline, student gender bias, and motherhood in STEM. Overall, the proportion of female authors in any position, including specifically as both first and last author, increased over the period of our study. Our results also indicate a sustained overrepresentation of female authors during the latter portions of our analysis. These results highlight an increase in female authorship on "Women in STEM" literature and demonstrate that female researchers are becoming more central in studying these topics. Although increasing female participation in subjects related to women in STEM is important for perspective, context, and solutions, male inclusion is also important to ensure buy-in in the workplace and allow an equal distribution of labor.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Global patterns of gender disparities in STEM and explanations for their persistence Open PDF 
    (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024-11-18)
    Cheryan, Sapna
    ;
    Lombard, Ella J.
    ;
    Hailu, Fasika
    ;
    Pham, Linh N. H.
    ;
    Weltzien, Katherine
    Women and girls are underrepresented in many, though not all, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields around the world. In this Review, we describe four key factors that help explain the continued underrepresentation of women in STEM. In many parts of the world, women lack access to education and job opportunities, preventing them from pursuing STEM. In places where women do have educational and professional opportunities, masculine cultures — shaped by both masculine defaults and differential treatment — can hinder entry and retention of women in STEM fields. Addressing masculine cultures is important to increase the representation of women, and research has identified multiple promising avenues for intervention. When masculine cultures remain, gender disparities can be reduced by increasing the positive experiences of women and girls in STEM. Finally, choices made by men to enter some STEM fields also contribute to the underrepresentation of women in these fields. We conclude by reviewing promising future directions for research on gender disparities in STEM, including examining the intersections of these factors, sociopolitical and economic contexts, and the experiences of trans and non-binary individuals and people with multiple marginalized identities in STEM.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Women in Science. Experiences of Academics in Switzerland
    (Transcript, 2025-08-12)
    De Cia Annalisa
    ;
    Hellmüller, Sara
    ;
    Mesok Khan, Elizabeth
    Women in science face particular challenges, such as structural inequalities, highly competitive work environments, and at times toxic cultures. This collection conveys the experiences of women academics in Switzerland, featuring insights from twelve scholars across various universities and disciplines. Each contributor shares their unique journey in pursuit of a professorship, illustrating the rich diversity of the Swiss scientific community. This volume offers hope for those struggling with finding their place in science, emphasizing the joys and privileges that can be found in an academic career and the passion and perseverance of those pursuing it.
  • Item type:Publication,
    The impact of gender diversity on scientific research teams: a need to broaden and accelerate future research Open PDF 
    (Palgrave, 2022)
    Love, Hannah B.
    ;
    Stephens, Alyssa
    ;
    Fosdick, Bailey K.
    ;
    Tofany, Elizabeth
    ;
    Fisher, Ellen R.
    Multiple studies from the literature suggest that a high proportion of women on scientific teams contributes to successful team collaboration, but how the proportion of women impacts team success and why this is the case, is not well understood. One perspective suggests that having a high proportion of women matters because women tend to have greater social sensitivity and promote even turn-taking in meetings. Other studies have found women are more likely to collaborate and are more democratic. Both explanations suggest that women team members fundamentally change team functioning through the way they interact. Yet, most previous studies of gender on scientific teams have relied heavily on bibliometric data, which focuses on the prevalence of women team members rather than how they act and interact throughout the scientific process. In this study, we explore gender diversity in scientific teams using various types of relational data to investigate how women impact team interactions. This study focuses on 12 interdisciplinary university scientific teams that were part of an institutional team science program from 2015 to 2020 aimed at cultivating, integrating, and translating scientific expertise. The program included multiple forms of evaluation, including participant observation, focus groups, interviews, and surveys at multiple time points. Using social network analysis, this article tested five hypotheses about the role of women on university-based scientific teams. The hypotheses were based on three premises previously established in the literature. Our analyses revealed that only one of the five hypotheses regarding gender roles on teams was supported by our data. These findings suggest that scientific teams may create ingroups, when an underrepresented identity is included instead of excluded in the outgroup, for women in academia. This finding does not align with the current paradigm and the research on the impact of gender diversity on teams. Future research to determine if high-functioning scientific teams disrupt rather than reproduce existing hierarchies and gendered patterns of interactions could create an opportunity to accelerate the advancement of knowledge while promoting a just and equitable culture and profession.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Addressing the gender gap in science: Lessons from examining international initiatives Open PDF 
    (De Gruyter Open Ltd, 2021)
    Goos, M.
    ;
    Kelly, R.
    From 2017 to 2019 the International Science Council funded a project investigating the gender gap in science disciplines. The aim of the project was to collect and analyse data on the gender gap and to create a database of good practices for encouraging girls and young women to study and pursue education and careers in the mathematical, computing, and natural sciences. In this article, we draw on our work in the Gender Gap in Science project to (1) explain the nature of the gender gap problem, (2) give examples of initiatives that scientists can take to help solve the gender gap problem, and (3) offer guidelines on how to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to address the gender gap in science. © 2021 IUPAC & De Gruyter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information, please visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Gender Gaps in Science: Systematic Review of the Main Explanations and the Research Agenda
    (2021)
    Tomassini, C.
    Despite improvements in incorporating women in tertiary education and science, several gender gaps persist today in some scientific and technological areas worldwide. Understanding the factors that determine these gaps is essential to incorporating women into knowledge societies on equal terms. The present research sought to explore and systematize the explanations given to this phenomenon by the international literature in the last four decades. The objectives were: (1). Analyze the evolution of the leading research agendas and categorize these into groups (or clusters) of explanations, and (2) discuss the challenges that research agendas face in addressing the phenomenon in a multi-causal way. The data were obtained from the articles contained in the Web of Science (WoS) and were subjected to a systematic review using bibliometric and qualitative techniques. The analysis reveals an essential growth of research in this area within the social sciences, which is grouped into five main types of explanation: (1) student performance in STEM areas, (2) influence of gender stereotypes and models, (3) interests and educational-learning experiences, (4) educational-occupational expectations and choices, and (5) uneven advancement and performance in scientific careers. Evolution shows that explanations about performance and individual choice have diminished noticeably in the present, giving rise to explanations regarding the influence of gender stereotypes and models within educational systems and socialization stages. This study thus contributes to understanding the causal factors that have determined gender gaps in science while identifying some new issues in research agendas. © 2021 Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca. All rights reserved.
  • Item type:Publication,
    The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education. Open PDF 
    (2018)
    Stoet, Gijsbert
    ;
    Geary, David C.
    The underrepresentation of girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is a continual concern for social scientists and policymakers. Using an international database on adolescent achievement in science, mathematics, and reading ( N = 472,242), we showed that girls performed similarly to or better than boys in science in two of every three countries, and in nearly all countries, more girls appeared capable of college-level STEM study than had enrolled. Paradoxically, the sex differences in the magnitude of relative academic strengths and pursuit of STEM degrees rose with increases in national gender equality. The gap between boys' science achievement and girls' reading achievement relative to their mean academic performance was near universal. These sex differences in academic strengths and attitudes toward science correlated with the STEM graduation gap. A mediation analysis suggested that life-quality pressures in less gender-equal countries promote girls' and women's engagement with STEM subjects.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Gender, science, and academic rank: Key issues and approaches Open PDF 
    (2020)
    Fox, M.F.
    In the social study of science, gender is a critical research site because relations of gender are hierarchical and inequality is a central feature of science. The focus here is on a key dimension of gender and scientific careers: academic rank, particularly that of full professor. This article concentrates on quantitative and qualitative approaches that have occurred in two focal problem areas related to gender, science, and rank: collaboration patterns and evaluative practices. The approaches encompass analyses of large and small groups and comparative cases, with surveys, bibliometrics, experiments, and interviews. This breadth of approaches reflects a search for explanations of the pervasive and persistent relationships between gender and academic rank. The analyses presented here point to the complexities of gender disparities in collaboration. These appear in team compositions, divisions of labor and power dynamics, integration into departmental units, and international coauthorship. The analyses also reveal ways that limited clarity in evaluation bears on gender disparities. Continuing understandings of gender, science, and rank will result in multi level analyses: those at organizational levels along with those of individual scientists. © 2020 Mary Frank Fox. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Women in STEM networks: Who seeks advice and support from women scientists? Open PDF 
    (2010)
    Feeney, M.K.
    ;
    Bernal, M.
    Supporting and advancing women's science careers continues to be of interest to researchers, scientists, science funders, and universities. Similarly, professional advice and support networks are important to understanding the advancement of scientific careers. This research aims to marry these two lines of research to investigate and compare the ways in which men and women scientists seek advice and support from women in their networks. Using a sample of academic scientists in nonmedical biology, chemistry, computer science, earth and atmospheric sciences, electrical engineering, and physics we assess the extent to which women and men scientists seek advice and support from women in their networks. We find that field of science is the primary predictor for the presence of women in scientists' advice and support networks. We also find that citizenship, rank, age, and friendship are significantly related to the proportion of women in women's networks, but are not consistently significantly related to the proportion of women in men's networks. We conclude with a discussion of the findings and the distinctions between men and women scientists' advice and support networks. © 2010 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.
  • Item type:Publication,
    A Goal Congruity Model of Role Entry, Engagement, and Exit: Understanding Communal Goal Processes in STEM Gender Gaps Open PDF 
    (SAGE Publications Inc., 2017)
    Diekman, A.B.
    ;
    Steinberg, M.
    ;
    Brown, E.R.
    ;
    Belanger, A.L.
    ;
    Clark, E.K.
    The goal congruity perspective provides a theoretical framework to understand how motivational processes influence and are influenced by social roles. In particular, we invoke this framework to understand communal goal processes as proximal motivators of decisions to engage in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). STEM fields are not perceived as affording communal opportunities to work with or help others, and understanding these perceived goal affordances can inform knowledge about differences between (a) STEM and other career pathways and (b) women’s and men’s choices. We review the patterning of gender disparities in STEM that leads to a focus on communal goal congruity (Part I), provide evidence for the foundational logic of the perspective (Part II), and explore the implications for research and policy (Part III). Understanding and transmitting the opportunities for communal goal pursuit within STEM can reap widespread benefits for broadening and deepening participation. © 2016, © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.