"Women Opt of Math/Science Careers Because of Family Demands"

[Triana]

Women tend to choose non-math-intensive fields for their careers -- not because they lack mathematical ability, but because they want flexibility to raise children or prefer less math-intensive fields of science, reports a new Cornell study.

"A major reason explaining why women are underrepresented not only in math-intensive fields but also in senior leadership positions in most fields is that many women choose to have children, and the timing of child rearing coincides with the most demanding periods of their career, such as trying to get tenure or working exorbitant hours to get promoted," said lead author Stephen J. Ceci, professor of human development at Cornell.

Women with advanced math abilities choose non-math fields more often than men with similar abilities, he added.

Women also tend to drop out of scientific fields -- especially math and physical sciences -- at higher rates than do men, particularly as they advance, because of their need for greater flexibility and the demands of parenting and caregiving, said co-author Wendy M. Williams, Cornell professor of human development.

"These are choices that all women, but almost no men, are forced to make," she said.

MORE...

http://www.sciencecodex.com/women_opt_out_of_mathscience_careers_because_of_family_demands

[zazen]

1. all the more fodder for the untenurable, p/t, slave wage labor of "permatemping"

NSF is funneling money into changing campus cultures to make them more accommodating to tenure track and tenured women, but the program assumes it's all attitudes and that there are not larger structural, economic issues going in with campuses that cut tenure lines to make room for more administrators and underpaid grad students. If all the teaching that got done in higher ed were done through tenure stream jobs with benefits, the workload and competition for _everyone_ would decrease and women could manage these positions better (and men's lives would be a little more sane also. They want to spend time with their kids too).

Any academic male 50 or younger will tell you he's had to bust his ass twice as much as the male full professors ahead of him, who could get tenure with a few publications. Now male or female you'd better bring a huge grant in and have several pubs before you even come up for your three-year review, IF you're lucky enough to land the position in the first place. Men in 1965 didn't have to bust their asses as much as adjunct women do today. If there were enough real jobs, women wouldn't have to work ungodly hours and would have time for mothering and upward mobility.

[Triana]

10. Damn good points you make, every one of them.

It appears the entire system of tenure needs an overhaul.

[BlooInBloo]

2. I know that when I taught maths, girls did a bit better than boys on average....

Mostly because, I think, the girls were more likely to follow my instructions (like "do the homework", "think of this problem this way", etc.).

It's too bad the attrition rate of girls in math is so high between the undergrad and graduate levels. A lot of untapped smarts there.

[Warpy]

3. I'd put the headline a little differently

Women Opt out of Most Careers Due to Rigid Workplace Conditions"

Unfortunately, our talent isn't sufficiently recognized to force changes in those workplaces to accommodate both men and women and the needs of their families.

We're in an uncomfortable transition when women are still seen as natural slaves within the home, responsible for cleaning, cooking, shopping, laundry, and childcare even if the husband's contribution is significant. He's helping. She's responsible.

Homes are changing and women are not the sole workers within it like they were just 40 years ago. It's high time business and academia catch up.

[Triana]

6. Yes. That's a much more accurate headline!

The article clearly states that it is not women's (lack of) ability that pushes them out of STEM careers - it's the demands of family and the fact that workplaces make no allowances for that - and males don't have those demands placed on them, in general. Men don't have to choose between family and career at the most critical time for both.

[Berry Cool]

7. One of the things that needs to change is that society needs to stop expecting women

to be the primary caregivers to their children, and to center all their career decisions on whatever will fit best around the rearing of children. Men don't do that. They don't factor child rearing into their career decisions because nobody expects them to do so. They're supposed to marry women who will factor the child rearing into THEIR career plans and make choices accordingly. That way, the men are free to do as they please and let the women shoulder the childcare burden.

This is a crazy way to live.

The workplace needs to offer more options to both men and women to have careers and parenthood at the same time--not remain the rigid place it is now, in which 100% devotion to many jobs is expected and, hence, only men take those jobs, because they are the sex that doesn't feel societally pressured into choosing a job around which they can fit the raising of children.

This is actually one of the reasons I want gay marriage and gay adoption to become the norm. Once there's a flood of single-sex couples and parental duos in the workplace, it won't be so easy for employers to assume that every working couple will consist of a woman who will put her career on the back burner to raise the kids and a man who continues his career uninterrupted.

[Triana]

9. I 100% agree! And what an EXCELLENT point about gay marriage/adoption -

YET MORE reasons both ought to be perfectly legal and sanctioned.

[glowing]

4. I have my bachelors in science.. there's not much out there worth while

govt programs died under bush, pharms i refuse, bio-chem engineering def. not my thing, research is.. but its very hard to get into a research arena.. takes schooling and knowing people.

[GoesTo11]

5. Why would math careers be different than other ones?

It doesn't seem like there's anything inherent in the nature of doing mathematics that makes it so you have to allocate your hours any differently than other careers. Is it that academic careers have a tenure clock? Then this would apply as much to history as to math. What are they even trying to say here?

[Triana]

8. "The timing of child rearing...

... coincides with the most demanding periods of their career, such as trying to get tenure or working exorbitant hours to get promoted," said lead author Stephen J. Ceci, professor of human development at Cornell."

It's in the article.

[GoesTo11]

11. That sounds like a problem across all academic careers

In fact, it's obviously a problem - you don't get out of grad school until your late 20s, then a post-doc or two take you to your early 30s to chase after tenure until you're almost 40.

But why is math being singled out? Is it just that math/science careers are disproportionately within academic environments, while other fields tend to have more jobs in institutions with more flexible work arrangements? Are other fields more flexible or more patient, even with the academic world?

[eppur_se_muova]

13. It may be that competition is more intense in these fields ...

at least in part because technology = $$$$, which draws more competitors. I believe I have read (though I cannot cite a source) that the ratio of applicants/academic job openings is higher in science & technology fields.

And on the cultural side, there are still people who regard a woman going after a "real" job as "taking away" a job from a man who is "expected" to support a family while hers of course is an "optional" career. Not many people will admit to that nowadays, but some of that attitude is still out there.

[bettyellen]

12. but that applies to most careers, not just math and science.

[zazen]

14. because NSF et al have to pretend they care about equity across "STEM" fields

Frankly, I think once a field becomes predominantly female, you have an unusual number of adjuncts, the rationale being that the women want flexible arrangements. But what if this feminization of a field (like English already, and soon psychology) becomes the means by which it's ghettoized and its tenure-stream lines are reduced. What if administrations systemically exploit this? Just like the past 35 years--our feminist gains of entering the professions have simulaneously been coopted by global corporate forces that were then able to more easily deny workers (men and women) a living wage because the working mother filled out the difference (of course, minority women have typically worked outside the home and had to raise kids simultaneously. . . so I'm talking about the professions, largely).

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields are still disproportionately male at the top, and NSF and other organizations are "charged" with doing something about "changing the culture." The humanities (and soon, the life sciences) are dominated by female PhDs, most of whom can't get jobs in their fields, but these fields aren't deemed "critical to national security and competitiveness," so they can work themselves into an early grave and give up all hope of children for the crumbs of scant tenure-stream jobs available in horrible locations at liberal arts colleges those trained at research universities never thought they'd have to join.

So, that's why you're seeing analyses of mathematics fields and gender.

[IDFbunny]

18. That's why I call BS

Math intensive is no more or less consuming than most not mathematically intensive career choices made in college.

[tonysam]

15. When I Read Something Like This,

I feel like I am in a time warp. With the economy in the shitter and with hardly ANY jobs of ANY kind to be found, handwringing over supposedly glamorous, male-dominated occupations and sexism is very low on the totem pole.

The biggest problem with feminism and feminist thought, and I have followed both for 40 years, is feminism's overwrought concern about elite women and not about the masses.

[Nikia]

16. If a young woman is good at math and works hard in school

Shouldn't she be able to gain employment in her chosen field and not be impeded because it has been traditionally male dominated?
When I was in junior high, my art teacher was not employed in her chosen field. She obtained her engineering degree shortly after WWII and was turned down for employment repeatedly because she was a woman. Back then, it was legal for them to do that so they had no qualms about telling her. As a result, she went back to school to be able to obtain acceptable female employment.
I think with the poor economy, we should be especially concerned about sexism. because it is easier to exclude certain people when there are more job candidates.

[Scout]

17. i think it was Gloria Steinem who observed that:

"you never hear men wondering how to balance home, family and career."

something like that, i probably shouldn't quote it directly.

i'm sure there are some men who do have this problem, but the vast majority (imo) do not. it is assumed that the women will have to be the ones who choose or juggle.

[Quantess]

19. When I was at San Francisco State University

The professor said that women are inherently less capable of math and science because that's how their brains are made. He was an Australian who was primarily a physical therapy professor. He also made it his business to say that boys tend to develop motor skills faster than girls, due to boys being inherently more physically active than girls.

His big "source": TIME MAGAZINE circa 1995

[summerfeminista]

20. Unfortunate.

It makes sense. Being away from mathematics and science for any period of time really takes away from your competitiveness in the field. These areas of study are constantly changing. Being an accountant or secretary doesn't change much over say decade.Even if women wanted to return to the field that they studied it would be difficult to get that lost knowledge. I don't know if there is a clear fix in this situation.