Persistence Is Cultural

Abstract

Why does sex segregation in professional occupations persist? Arguing that the cultures and practices of professional socialization serve to perpetuate this segregation, we examine the case of engineering. Using interview and diary entry data following students from college entry to graduation, we show how socialization leads women to develop less confidence that they will "fit" into the culture of engineering. We identify three processes that produce these cultural mismatches: orientation to engineering at college entry, initiation rituals in coursework and team projects, and anticipatory socialization during internships and summer jobs. Informal interactions with peers and everyday sexism in teams and internships are particularly salient building blocks of segregation.

Women's relationships with women at work: Barriers to solidarity

“…Some businesses have attempted to increase diversity at work by encouraging the formation of affinity groups, which are typically promoted for workers who have experienced inequalities (e.g., women, people of color, and queer employees) in their work sites (Seron, Silbey, Cech, & Rubineau, 2016;Williams, Kilanski, & Muller, 2014). Affinity groups purportedly offset the advantages that men accrue from informal networking.…”

Vol 9 No 2 (2019)

“…Nevertheless, gender advantage and disadvantage are very much intertwined with age, generation, and the life course. For example, research has suggested that differences between men and women become particularly salient during key life course transitions, such as first entry into professional employment (Seron, Silbey, Cech & Rubineau, 2016), or during child-bearing years (Ranson, 2005;Demaiter & Adams, 2009). Moreover, generational differences are evident.…”

Undergraduate STEM Instructors' Teacher Identities and Discourses on Student Gender Expression and Equity

“…In Western culture, powerful, culturally gendered disciplinary practices produce docile, feminine bodies: acceptable social positions for women often include displays of "frailty, fear, and incompetence" (Goffman, 1977, p. 312), and these practices become even more pronounced, and reinforced, in the specific institutional context of STEM. Studies have strongly suggested that institutions and their agents, including STEM instructors, are a major force in the construction and transmission of traditional binary and heteronormative narratives of gender (e.g., Faulkner, 2000;Foor, Walden, & Trytten, 2007;Ong, 2005;Seron, Silbey, Cech, & Rubineau, 2016).…”