"We've All Learned a Lot of Ways Not to Solve the Problem": Perceptions of Science and Engineering Pathways Among Tenured Women Faculty

Career situation of female astronomers in Germany

“…We recommend young students to carefully choose the group they want to work with and to regularly attend and give talks at conferences. Since surveys (Könekamp et al 2002;Ivie & Tesfaye 2011;Fohlmeister et al 2010) have shown that women in general are at risk to receive less opportunities, having a good and trustworthy mentor can be extremely helpful for the advancement (see studys also studies by tsui 2010; Tyson & Borman 2010). We find that almost every second participant in our survey found their current job due to personal contacts.…”

Gender in academic STEM: A focus on men faculty

“…The first step to create such an environment would be a collective recognition that women face different barriers than men to advance in academic STEM. Despite years of research documenting this (e.g., Dunham et al, ; Frehill et al, ; Toutkoushian & Bellas, ; Tyson & Borman, ; Valian, ) and increased attention to improving women's representation in STEM fields, nearly half of our informants revealed gender‐blind perspectives: they believed that the current setting in academia does not allow discrimination based on gender. This ‘post‐discrimination view of inequality’ (Jenkins, , p. 81), which perceives formal recognition of personal characteristics in policy design as a flaw to meritocracy in academia, is not efficiently targeted by common diversity training and programmes (Bird, ).…”

“…The first step to create such an environment would be a collective recognition that women face different barriers than men to advance in academic STEM. Despite years of research documenting this (e.g., Dunham et al, 2012;Frehill et al, 2006;Toutkoushian & Bellas, 1999;Tyson & Borman, 2010;Valian, 2004) and increased attention to improving women's representation in STEM fields, nearly half of our informants revealed gender-blind perspectives:…”

“…Women's underrepresentation in academic STEM is well-documented, as is the fact that gender gaps become wider at higher educational levels and academic ranks (Blickenstaff, 2005;Cronin & Roger, 1999). The focus of contemporary research into the persistent gender imbalance has shifted from individual-focused approaches that are centred on women's competency, interests and choices (Benbow & Stanley, 1983;Diekman, Brown, Johnston, & Clark, 2010; see also Spelke, 2005) to barriers blocking women's advancement in these fields (e.g., Bendl & Schmidt, 2010;Dunham, Weathers, Hoo, & Heintz, 2012;Elliott, 2008;Mack, Johnson, Woodson, Henkin, & Dee, 2010;Tyson & Borman, 2010;Wright et al, 2004). The new generation of studies seeks to identify the institutional characteristics of academic STEM that make them unfriendly to women (Bird, 2011;Francis et al, 2017).…”

“…The new generation of studies seeks to identify the institutional characteristics of academic STEM that make them unfriendly to women (Bird, 2011;Francis et al, 2017). It is now well documented in the literature that women in academic STEM face challenges including teaching and service overload (Toutkoushian & Bellas, 1999;Valian, 2004); devaluation of their research (Frehill, Javurek-Humig, & Jeser-Cannavale, 2006); poor mentoring and insufficient role modelling (Dunham et al, 2012;Mack et al, 2010;Tyson & Borman, 2010); high visibility and misogynic stereotyping (Tyson & Borman, 2010); exclusion from informal networks and fewer opportunities for collaborations (Gaughan & Bozeman, 2016;Heilman, Wallen, Fuchs, & Tamkins, 2004;Tyson & Borman, 2010); and tensions between career and family (Baker, 2010;Mason & Goulden, 2002;O'Laughlin & Bischoff, 2005;Rosser, 2004).…”