Tagaloa 1

Alisi Tagaloa

Nancy Ross

INTS 3900-40

18 November 2018

Women in Science

Annotated Bibliography

Ceci, S., et al. “Understanding current causes of women’s underrepresentation in Science.”

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol.

108, no. 8, 2011, pp. 3157-3162. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41060898.

This journal article focuses its findings on underrepresentation of women in the

mathematical areas of science. Authors of this specific journal outlined many claims of

discrimination. They also mentioned that most of the evidence backing up the data of

underrepresentation are no longer valid, given that many things have changed over the

past few years. Women have progressed through the fields of science, so the authors

concluded that people are so focused on solving issues of the past that they forget about

the meaningful ones deterring the participation of women in science these days.

Christie, et al. “Understanding why women are under-represented in Science, Technology,

Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) within Higher Education: A regional case

study.” Química Nova, SBQ, 10 Apr. 2017 www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_

arttext&pid=S0103-65132017000200301.

In efforts to gain better understanding of why a gender gap exists in Science,

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Christie along with other

researchers worked together and presented their findings in this article. Statistical data
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dating back to the 1900s from the National Centre for Education Statistics were included

to see if there was a difference in the number of women in STEM a few years ago

compared to today. The article also pointed out interesting findings on how to attain

gender equality in STEM and offered methods to try and see if the factors mentioned for

gap existence really attributed to the difference in numbers.

Dodson, A. “Bringing gender diversity to the sciences.” Diverse: Issues in Higher Education,

vol. 29, no. 20, Nov. 2012, pp. 24-25. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=asn&AN=83340489&site=ehost=live.

In addition to gender discrimination, author Angela Dodson emphasized in this

article that women in science face greater barriers than for women who choose careers in

other fields. Angela did an interview with provost Sue V. Rosser, and found out that the

same old issues persist in why there is still a small percentage of women in science. One

of the questions asked addressed the barriers, and Rosser mentioned that one of the

biggest challenges for women is falling behind. With technological advances, science is

constantly changing, and if one decided to stay home and take care of the kids for a year,

she would be really out in terms of science. It is also a struggle to find grants for

research, because competition is very tough. However, efforts in finding out ways to

help engage more women are still in progress.

Holman, et al. “The gender gap in science: How long until women are equally represented?”

Public Library of Science, journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.

2004956.

It is no surprise that men comprise more than half of the workforce in fields of

science and medicine. While most articles focus on explaining the gender gap, this
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article talks specifically about journals calling for more male publications compared to

scientific journals written and submitted by female authors. Computational methods

were used to determine the ratio of female to male publications, and a significant amount

was revealed. The article additionally mentioned and concluded that many research

specialties in the various fields of science would not reach gender equality around this

century.

Hopkins, N. “Reflecting on fifty years of progress for women in science.” DNA & Cell Biology,

vol. 34, no. 3, Mar. 2015, pp.159 – 161. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1089/dna.2015.2803.

Author Nancy Hopkins wrote this article with the sole purpose of explaining how

women progressed in science specifically from the year 1964 to 2014. Nancy explored

the issue of gender discrimination back in the 1960s, claiming that it was one of the main

reasons as to why most women did not pursue careers or education in any science field.

To show that progress has been made, Nancy included a reflection of her own experience

in studying biology at Harvard University. She emphasized that she was encouraged by

professors to pursue higher education in science, when back then, women were thought to

not have the intellect in learning about such a difficult course.

Jones, C. G. “All your dreadful scientific things’: Women, science and education in the years

around 1900.” History of Education, vol. 46, no. 2, Mar. 2017, pp. 162-175. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1080/0046760X.2016.1273406.

Starting in the 1900s, women were granted the opportunity to attend higher

education and pursue careers out of their comfort zones. It was through such

opportunities that most women acquired research expertise and contributed to developing

scientific knowledge. It was made clear that the number of women was nothing
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compared to men, but it was from then on, that women started being visible and were

appreciated for their contributions to science.

Maholtra, C. “The malaise of under-representation of women in science: The Indian story.”

Current Science (00113891), vol. 115, no. 9, Nov. 2018, pp. 1714-1723. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.18520/cs/v115/i9/1717-1723

This article targets the issue of women underrepresentation in the fields of science

specifically in India. Based on research and experience, author Maholtra has comprised a

few thoughts on how women are deprived so many opportunities and how much it is

costing the society, because women have proven that they could do so much more than

the norms set out for them. Maholtra emphasized that women would never be greatly

appreciated in the fields of science, unless policymakers and the scientific community

take time to reflect and realize the hard work of so many women who contributed to the

progression of science throughout the years.

Ngila, et. al. “Women’s representation in national science academies: An unsettling narrative.”

South African Journal of Science, vol. 113, no. 7/8, July 2017, pp. 96-102. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.17159/sajs.2017/20170050.

Ngila and other researchers have conducted studies and discussed their findings in

this article. One of the studies focused on the representation of women scientists in

national science academies. As supported by most findings in various articles and

journals, the number of women who pursue higher education in science can never be

compared to that of men. For such reason, the researchers are urging science academies

to contribute towards advocating and increasing women participation in the fields of

science.
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“Obsessive genius: The inner world of Marie Curie” Journal of Clinical Investigation vol. 115,5

(2005): 1109.

This article includes an analysis of author Barbara Goldsmith’s biography on the

life of Marie Curie. It was clearly mentioned in the article that the biography was written

during the time when women were still greatly underrepresented in most fields of

science. To disprove how women were thought to be less competent in math and science,

Barbara wrote her book on the successes of Marie Curie, the first ever woman to receive

a Nobel prize and discovered two elements on the periodic table. The analysis mainly

pointed out that being a scientist does not depend on gender or age, rather on the passion

to research and discover new things.

PainMar, et al. “Celebrating Women in Science.” Science | AAAS, American Association for the

Advancement of Science, 9 Feb. 2018, www.sciencemag.org/careers/2018/02/celebrating

-women-science.

This article comprises statements from various female scientists. In each

statement, female scientists have reflected on their experiences while paving pathways to

success. The responses also included advices as to what to do and what not to do when

pursuing a career in the various science fields. Authors PainMar and several others have

worked together to interview not only women scientists within the United States, but

those around the world. The main goal of the article was to inform women that diversity

is greatly appreciated and needed in the field of science.

Reid, J. “Beatrice Hill Tinsley: Breaking through the glass ceilimg.” Journal of the Royal

Society of New Zealand, vol. 47, no. 2, June 2017, pp. 211-217. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1080/03036758.2017.1305974.
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This article by Josephine Reid explains so much about gender equality in science

through the biography of New Zealand’s leading scientist, Beatrice Hill Tinsley. It

briefly mentioned the ‘Matilda effect’, a term used to explain the undervaluation of

women’s contribution to science. The article went on to talk about how Beatrice was

rejected when she applied to several science occupations. The article also informed the

readers that women today are still facing adversities that Beatrice faced years ago.

Despite the complications, Beatrice achieved success and is well known today for her

contributions to our understanding of galaxies.

Saini, A. Inferior: How Science got women wrong and the new research that’s rewriting the

story. Beacon Press, Boston, 2018.

In this book, author Angela Saini compiled qualitative and quantitative data from

global organizations and used them to emphasize why few women are at the top of

science and engineering. Angela authored that women were thought to be intellectual

inferior to men because of the many hardships they went through in the past years. With

statistics from various resources, Angela mentioned that some of the explanations as to

why the percentage of women in science is very small result from factors such as

housework, pregnancy, child care, gender bias, and harassment.

Saini went into details about how women were frowned upon in the fields of

science and mentioned a few of her personal experiences. Emphasizing that women

inferiority was backed by scientific research, Saini included claims by Charles Darwin, a

biologist who was and is well-known today for his theory of evolution. Saini argued

against women inferiority in science by mentioning in her writing, personal experiences

from women scientists, physicists, biologists, and chemists all around the globe.
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Uncovering much of the information that society turns a blind eye to, Saini came to

realize that we are still living in a community that believes that women will never be the

same as their male counterparts.

Schiebinger, L. “Women in science: Historical perspectives.” http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/

meetings/WiA/schieb.pdf

Writer Londa Schiebinger informed the readers through this piece of writing that

women scientists have become objects of a new field of study ever since statistical data

came out claiming that women were underrepresented in the field of science. Many

books were written in light of research for why there is a gender gap in science, and

Londa takes the readers way back to when the world’s major scientific academies of

science formed. The article tells stories of women throughout the middle ages and

continues along the timeline, concluding the paper including stories of women in science

nowadays.

Schmidt, et. al. “Addressing gender inequality in science: The multifaceted challenge of

assessing impact.” Research Evaluation, vol. 26, no. 2, Apr 2017, pp=102-114.

EBSCOhost, doi:101093/reseval/rvx003.

This article provides an explanation for the reasons behind the

underrepresentation of women particularly in attaining high positions in science related

careers. The explanation as provided by Schmidt, Kalpazidou, Marina, and others was

based on the assessment of 125 programs that implemented research on gender equality.

According to the findings, the problem of gender inequality in science was believed to be

closely affiliated with many interrelated factors. The article pointed out that the work of

gender equality programs have proven to be very effective.

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“The Untold History of Women in Science and Technology.” National Archives and Records

Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, obamawhitehouse.

archives.gov/women-in-stem.

This article includes recordings of women across the world telling stories of their

untold legacies in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. Ranging from

leaders and administrators to chemists and biologists, these women worked hard to set the

early foundation of modern programming and unveiled the structure of DNA. In

addition, the women scientists told inspiring stories to encourage other young women to

never be afraid to pursue careers in science, and sharing their stories broke the sound

barriers that prohibited their voices from being heard.

Venessa. “Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).” Catalyst,

22 Aug. 2018, www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-science-technology-engineering-

and-mathematics-stem.

Women underrepresentation in science is an issue that does not involve only the

United States. This article provides statistical data of women scarcity in scientific

research and development globally. Places like Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Japan,

and so forth are experiencing the same gender gap issue faced by the United States. Not

only are there fewer women than men in science careers, some data revealed that women

earn less than men for job titles they each share.

Yiu, Y. “The history behind 'Hidden Figures'.” Inside Science, 16 Mar. 2017, www.inside

science.org/news/history-behind-hidden-figures.

One important aspect of feminism that people tend to overlook sometimes is

intersectionality. The suffrage that women in general went through is way different from
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the struggles faced by women of different backgrounds. In this article, author Yiu sheds

light to some of the hidden figures who contributed to the successes of the National

Aeronautics Space Administration’s space race. The efforts of three African American

women, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn was long

underappreciated given the fact that not only were they females, but they were African

Americans.