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Media articles about women in STEM often emphasize gender in ways that may reinforce stereotypes. In an archival study examining 172 articles from four major US and UK newspapers on women, Nobel laureates from 1903 to 2020, we find that over time, reporters are more likely to describe the scientist as a woman and less likely to mention her husband’s job. A follow-up experiment (N = 452) revealed no significant effects of an article that emphasizes the gender of a woman scientist on gender biases. These findings suggest that articles about women in STEM may emphasize gender rather than scientific accomplishments, but the ways in which they do so have changed over time and this emphasis may not affect readers’ gender bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low levels of female representation are found when it comes to technical roles within the South African performing arts industry despite improved numbers in the overall representation of females within the industry across different occupational categories. Employment in the core functions of the performing arts entities is therefore still predominantly male. The research aimed to explore the representation of women in a performing arts entity. The feminist, social dominance and patriarchy theories were used to conceptualize the research phenomena and interrogate the findings in this study. The research adopted a qualitative case study approach, using one-on-one in-depth interviews. The sample of participants included management and employees in the technical business unit, selected through convenience sampling and a complementary snowball sampling technique. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, which engendered themes and sub-themes, substantiated by verbatim quotes from the interviews. Although the research findings indicated an unequal representation of females in technical roles and their absence in management positions within the entity, female presence was found to enhance teamwork and diverse views, which consequently improved team performance. The study found that barriers to female representation include unequal gender representation, the nature of work, and the work-life balance. The study established policy recommendations for the industry, including flexible-hour strategies and childcare facilities, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do women remain underrepresented in some science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields? Research has uncovered various situational factors such as belongingness cues, but one understudied (and related) factor may be outperformance-related discomfort. Specifically, when people outperform others who are upset about being outperformed, they may experience sensitivity about being the target of a threatening upward comparison (STTUC; Exline and Lobel, in Psychological Bulletin 125:307–337, 1999). Three studies examined the potential role of STTUC among women in STEM and how STTUC relates to feelings of belongingness. Study 1 recruited a large internet sample of undergraduate women and found that the tendency to experience STTUC corresponded with relatively low levels of belongingness in both STEM and arts/humanities courses. Replicating prior research, results also showed significantly lower levels of belongingness in STEM vs. arts/humanities courses. Study 2 found higher anticipated levels of perceiving the outperformed person as upset and experiencing STTUC-related concerns among undergraduate women (vs. men) who imagined academically outperforming others. Study 3 examined women and non-binary first-year undergraduates in STEM and found that the tendency to experience STTUC corresponded to relatively low levels of belongingness in STEM at two time points. Taken together, results suggest that experiencing outperformance-related discomfort in STEM may predict relatively low levels of belongingness, which, over time, may contribute to weakening women's interest in pursuing STEM. The present research may be of particular interest to educators, administrators, and policy makers interested in improving women's representation in STEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women remain underrepresented in technology and computing fields. Aware of this problem, many tech organizations seek diversification strategies. Several academic sources recommend including gender diverse images in recruitment materials as a low-cost way to potentially attract female workers. However, for gender nondiverse organizations, this strategy means misrepresenting the current on-the-ground diversity of their organization. Four experiments investigate how women and men perceive organizations that counterfeit diversity (i.e., exaggerate gender diversity in recruitment advertisements) relative to organizations that (a) authentically portray a high degree of gender diversity (authentic diversity; Experiments 1–3); (b) authentically portray a low degree of gender diversity (authentic nondiversity; Experiments 2 and 3); and (c) acknowledge a lack of diversity in the present, but aspire to increase diversity in the future (aspirational diversity; Experiment 3). Results reveal that women and men perceive counterfeit diversity as insincere. This perceived insincerity, in turn, decreases women's and men's interest in the organization and engenders identity threat concerns among women (Experiments 1–4). Taken together, these findings complicate scholarly discussions of diversity and inclusion strategies by highlighting the role of perceived sincerity. When recruitment strategies are deemed insincere, these strategies can backfire—decreasing interest in the organization, fomenting threat, and perpetuating underrepresentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues that community development work, in the form of feminist pedagogy and community radio, can engage more women in technological roles, aid women's confidence and mental health and possibly, improve diversity in mainstream media. In UK media, corporations are heavily criticized for their under and misrepresentation of women and, in general, their inability to engage with excluded groups. The BBC's strategic aim is to improve inclusion and diversity by 2020. The article asserts the value of community development methods in efforts to address this. It explores concepts of voice poverty and empowerment through analysis of the narratives of twelve female community radio volunteers in Northern England. Using Freire's (1972) notion of 'culture of silence' and against the backdrop of gender inequality, the article clarifies the nature of community radio and employs a variety of literatures to understand how a feminist pedagogy (hooks, 1994) and an intersectional approach (Crenshaw, 1989) might be useful in media. It builds from Stuart Hall's contention that media and cultural spaces can be powerful sites of social action. Analysis of participant accounts indicates that community radio is a site of diverse identities, laughter, dialogue, raised consciousness, and conflict. This confronts not only the orthodoxy of young white, male-dominated media but also challenges romantic notions of community harmony and happiness by recognizing inherent tensions within prevailing conceptions of womanhood and within and between communities. The article foregrounds evidence from the majority world, where community radio is well documented as giving voice to invisiblized women, and concludes with an argument for further exploration of this highly symbolic dimension of empowerment, whereby women overcome technological fears and break their silence by broadcasting diverse voices. The project challenges UK commercial and public broadcasters to learn from the global south that community radio is an effective method of development with potential to enrich the mainstream media world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During this difficult economic time, as policy makers decide how to use their limited resources to help prepare the rising generation for the demands of an ever-changing workforce, aligning K-12 educational priorities with higher education and economic development can help maximize public dollar investments in STEM education, particularly when females are given access to STEM and STEM-related education and programs. Smart public policy initiatives can help increase the representation of women in technology, research and development, and innovation departments. The purpose of this article is to provide policy recommendations that could help increase gender diversity and participation in STEM education pipelines and stimulate innovation. Viewing public dollar investments in female STEM education as an economic development tool not only encourages diverse participation in traditionally male dominated industries but can help leverage STEM education into an economic driver that promotes strong technology sectors in state economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on social comparison and role congruity theory, this study examined the effect of perceived attainability and role congruity in media female role models on women's social comparison and career interest. A 2×2 experiment was conducted in which participants read a high or low attainability message, then portrayals of role models in a counter-stereotypical career with a family (high congruity to the female gender role) or without a family (low congruity to the female gender role). Results showed that the high attainability message led to self-inspiration and higher career interest, but only when the portrayals were in a less self-relevant domain. Implications for the use of role models to address the issue of female underrepresentation in STEM fields are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se presenta un editorial que discute que discute sobre los modelo de digitalización en Estados Unidos, China y Europa con el enfoque del impacto sistemático en la nuestra vida, cultura, economía y sociedad. El articulo también se centra en la consecuencia de una globalizacion economía, una innovación tecnológica y s la presencia de mujeres en el mercado digital es minoritaria

• Novel data from the San Francisco Bay Area obtained from the WholeTraveler study. • Highest adoption rates are for ride-hailing services and adaptive cruise control. • High interest in automated and plug-in electric vehicle technologies. • Adoption and interest mediated by age, income, gender, and commute distance. Emerging technologies and services stand poised to transform the transportation system, with large implications for energy use and mobility. The degree and speed of these impacts depend largely on who adopts these innovations and how quickly. Leveraging data from a novel survey of San Francisco Bay Area residents, we analyze adoption patterns for shared mobility, electrified vehicle technologies, and vehicle automation. We find that ride-hailing and adaptive cruise control have penetrated the market more extensively than have electrified vehicles or car-sharing services. Over half of respondents have adopted or expressed interest in adopting all levels of vehicle automation. Overall, there is substantial potential for market growth for the technologies and services we analyzed. Using county fixed effects regressions, we investigate which individual and location-level factors correlate to adoption and interest. We find that, although higher-income people are disproportionately represented among current adopters of most new technologies and services, low- to middle-income people are just as likely to have adopted pooled ride-hailing. Younger generations have high interest in automated and electrified vehicles relative to their current adoption of these technologies, suggesting that young people could contribute substantially to future market growth—as they are doing for ride-hailing. We find no evidence that longer commutes present a barrier to plug-in electric vehicle adoption. Finally, women are less likely than men to adopt and/or be interested in adopting most new transportation technologies, with the exception of ride-hailing; designing or marketing technologies with women's preferences in mind could contribute to future market expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Few qualitative studies have explored women's use of social egg freezing. Derived from an interview study of 31 participants, this article explores the motivations of women using this technology. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 users of social egg freezing resident in UK (n = 23), USA (n = 7) and Norway (n = 1). Interviews were face to face (n = 16), through Skype and Facetime (n = 9) or by telephone (n = 6). Data were analyzed using interpretive thematic analysis. Results: Women's use of egg freezing was shaped by fears of running out of time to form a conventional family, difficulties in finding a partner and concerns about "panic partnering", together with a desire to avoid future regrets and blame. For some women, use of egg freezing was influenced by recent fertility or health diagnoses as well as critical life events. A fifth of the participants also disclosed an underlying fertility or health issue as affecting their decision. Conclusion: The study provides new insights in to the complex motivations women have for banking eggs. It identifies how women's use of egg freezing was an attempt to "preserve fertility" in the absence of the particular set of "life conditions" they regarded as crucial for pursuing parenthood. It also demonstrates that few women were motivated by a desire to enhance their career and that the boundaries between egg freezing for medical and for social reasons may be more porous than first anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely acknowledged that there is an underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Science Foundation Ireland, the largest funder of STEM research in Ireland, has been developing initiatives to remove and mitigate any existing or perceived factors that may limit the participation of women in STEM careers. In this paper, we present a review of gender initiatives across our funding programmes since 2011 and highlight those that are supporting a stronger representation of women in STEM. Overall, we have seen an increase in female award holders from 21% in 2015, to 26% in 2017. In 2015, a gender initiative was introduced into SFI's Starting Investigator Research Grant Programme, which led to a 22 percentage point increase in female award holders compared to the 2013 call, when no gender initiative was in place. Science Foundation Ireland will continue to monitor the impacts of these actions, and to innovate and contribute to international best practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More women postpone childbearing nowadays while female fertility begins to decline with advancing age. Furthermore, with the rolling out of the two‐child policy, there is a huge demand for a second child for Chinese aged women. There are various assisted reproductive technology (ART) strategies applied for age‐related infertility without solid evidence. On behalf of the Society of Reproductive Medicine, Chinese Medical Association, we would like to develop a Chinese guideline of ART strategies for age‐related infertility. This guideline was produced following the recommendations for standard guidelines described in the 2012 WHO Handbook for guideline development. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) framework was also followed. A protocol was formulated and a Guideline Development Group was formed with specialists of reproductive medicine, methodologists from Chinese GRADE working group, and patient representative. Questions regarding the ART strategies for aged infertility were formulated and 8 most important ones were chosen to be structured in PICO format (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes). Comprehensive search and review of the literature were performed and the quality of the evidence was assessed and rated based on certain criteria and be categorized as high, moderate, low, or very low. Twenty‐five recommendations were formulated among members of the Guidelines Development Group (Delphi method) basing on the overall quality of the evidence, in addition to the balance between benefits and harms, values and preferences, and resource implications. The final recommendations were agreed on by consensus during face‐to‐face meetings. This is the first Chinese practice guideline in reproductive medicine developed following the standard and scientific method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social identity threat has been proposed as a key contributor to the underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), blit little research has sought to pinpoint naturally occurring contextual predictors of identity threat for women already training or working in STEM. The focus of the present research was to examine how cues to an identity-safe culture predict more or less positive interactions between men and women in STEM in ways that may trigger or minimize women's daily experience of social identity threat. Specifically, we examined the role of inclusive organizational policies and/or greater female representation as 2 identity safety cues. In 2 daily diary studies of working engineers' experiences, and in an experiment with undergraduate engineering students, we tested a model whereby cues to identity safety predict lower social identity threat for women in STEM, as mediated by having (or expecting to have) more positive interactions with male (but not female) colleagues. Results across each study and an internal meta-analysis of overall effects revealed that female engineers' actual and anticipated daily experience of social identity threat was lower in organizations perceived to have more gender-inclusive policies (but was not consistently predicted by gender representation). The link between gender-inclusive policies and lower social identity threat was mediated by women having (or expecting to have) more positive conversations with male (and not female) colleagues, and was only found for women and not men. The implications for reducing social identity threat in naturalistic settings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's views on the role of women in computing and technology since 1969. Topics discussed include their role in moon landing on July 20, 1969, their growth in the field of software engineering, computer pioneers of 19th century, their works in scientific laboratories and development of human computers.

This paper investigates why there is a shortage of women in innovation, such as science, particularly technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sectors and offers insights for managing corporate foresight. It acknowledges that traditional corporate foresight methodologies have their own inherent problems, but argues that greater inclusion of women brings in new dimensions not previously recognised within the predominantly male-dominated technology sector. While extant feminist research may look at the general disadvantages women have in the workplace, few have examined the genesis and constitution of femininity to understand what new input can be brought innovation management, and how these different views can change the conduct of corporate foresight in the technology sector. Interviews from five senior personnel in the technology sector were conducted, and responses to a concise questionnaire involving 365 participants were obtained. Three case-rich narratives are presented as a summary on the future of women in technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a plethora of initiatives and a surge of research activity, women remain under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (National Science Foundation 2017). While much research has focused on ways to recruit women into these disciplines, less work has explored the strategies women use to navigate these contexts once they have entered. In a set of two experimental studies, we investigate women's potential response strategies to the well-documented tension between female and STEM attributes in terms of individual self-presentation. In Study 1 (N = 240), we examine whether female STEM professionals have different impression goals when introducing themselves to professional peers versus a group of other women. In Study 2 (N = 169), we extend our inquiry to include self-presentation behavior as well as intentions. Across studies, we find that female STEM professionals hold different impression goals based on the audience with whom and context in which they expect to interact. These intentions align with actual self-introduction behavior, as observed in written self-introductions. Tuning one's self-presentation, however, leads participants to feel less authentic. This work highlights one way women in male-dominated STEM contexts may navigate and strategically communicate their female and STEM identities to others, as well as the personal implications of doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely acknowledged that women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) fields are underrepresented in leadership globally. However, little is known about how leadership styles of women in STEMM relate to this underrepresentation. This article discusses findings from a survey examining how 61 women in STEMM define leadership and describe their own leadership styles. Using content analysis and drawing on Full Range Leadership Model factors, findings suggest that women define leadership and describe their own leadership styles using transformational factors. However, there was no consistency in how participants defined ideal leadership or how they defined their own leadership styles. This finding unsettles ideas of distinctly gendered leadership styles. We argue that expectations that leadership will be performed in distinctly gendered styles may be contributing to the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles in STEMM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The technology labour market, where women are in the minority, represents an opportunity for employment in Spain. This paper analyses the data from the Labour Force Survey (known by its abbreviation in Spanish, 'EPA') in relation to the population employed in the technological sector. The gender segregation of the employed population is analysed by economic sector, together with the employment characteristics of women employed in the technological sector. The results indicate that job expectations are good for women in this sector, but also that they have a higher risk of being overqualified, which suggests that there are persistent discrimination factors. Finally, women expressed greater concern than their male counterparts about the excessive working hours, which raises the need for structural change in organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: For many years now, there have been many job vacancies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but not enough workers to fill these vacancies. Much attention has been given to understanding and changing this situation in our country. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to address this dilemma by understanding what may be gained by investigating student’s attitudes towards STEM in high school. Specifically, we study the relationship between students’ math attitudes and math self-efficacy beliefs and their career outcomes in STEM. Further, we do this across different English proficiency levels to see if any understanding may be gained by studying these groups differently. Research Design: This study implemented secondary analysis by using a nationally representative sample of U.S. 10th graders from the Education Longitudinal Study. A latent class analysis was used to classify students’ math attitudes and self-efficacy. Results: The results from this study provide empirical support suggesting that across all three English proficiency groups, students with high math attitudes and high math self-efficacy were more likely to have a career in STEM. When examining demographic characteristics, female students were more likely to have lower math attitude and lower math self-efficacy, which helps to explain why there is an underrepresentation of female students in STEM fields. We also found that race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status operated differently for each of the English proficiency groups. Conclusions/Recommendations: This study directly links student math attitudes and self efficacy to later career choice. This study has implications for researchers and policymakers who are developing interventions, suggesting that fostering positive math attitudes and self efficacy would help encourage more students to pursue careers in STEM, particularly for non-native English speakers and female students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women graduate from college at higher rates than men, they remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This study examines whether women react to failing a STEM weed-out course by switching to a non-STEM major and graduating with a bachelor's degree in a non-STEM field. While competitive courses designed to weed out potential STEM majors are often invoked in discussions around why students exit the STEM pipeline, relatively little is known about how women and men react to failing these courses. We use detailed individual-level data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) Postsecondary Transcript Study (PETS): 1988-2000 to show that women who failed an introductory calculus course are substantially less likely to earn a bachelor's degree in STEM. In doing so, we provide evidence that weed-out course failure might help us to better understand why women are less likely to earn degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pessimistic scenario for ‘women in information communications technology’ and for ‘women in technology’ generally is even more paradoxical and insidious with respect to ‘women in computing’. Studies within this field not only report insignificant improvement in the proportion of women in Western countries’ computing fields but also alert us of a declining trend. Moreover, that decline has been accompanied – or even preceded – by years of research and programs that have specifically focused on increasing women’s participation in computing; however, they have not had the expected effect. More surprisingly, there has been a significant increase in the representation of women in all other science-related fields and professions. Our aim is to provide some clues to fight the feeling of inexorability that may be entailed by the research on women in computing. We will argue that part of the problem is related to the static nature of the research deployed around the problem of ‘women in computing’, primarily, the research constructed around the ‘leaky pipeline’ metaphor. We provide a synthesis of the critiques this research has received in recent decades and highlight research trends that render other landscapes visible when studying ‘women in computing’. These trends help us question how we are conducting research within this field and urge us to problematise assumptions about computing and gender that we may paradoxically continue to reproduce even while denouncing the paucity of women in computing and studying the reasons for this state of affairs. In short, we present the need for different researchers’ eyes that allow different landscapes of women and computing to be seen and produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many technical professions, women are underrepresented. While a gender imbalance also has been assumed to exist in the realm of professional GIS, no data existed to corroborate it. The original survey presented here was developed by the authors to add both quantitative and qualitative research about the numbers and current experience of women in GIS to address this knowledge gap. A total of 484 women responded to the survey, providing a healthy sample size and a reliable and informative data set. A key finding is that some 42 percent of women are, overall, not grossly underrepresented in the GIS workforce. This does not mean, however, that underrepresentation in more specific areas or that other gender equality issues are not present. The survey results suggest that women in GIS might be more underrepresented in certain sectors and in certain types of positions, and use a higher proportion of "soft" versus technical skills in their current positions. Based on the research findings, GIS seems like a good field for female participation, with its good work-life balance, strong sense of community, opportunities for networking and mentoring, and importance placed on continuing development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary summarizes insights and discussions about the status of women leaders in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and medicine). While many academic institutions now train close to 50 % female students in STEM disciplines, there is a major underrepresentation of qualified women in leadership roles. Women are admitted to the basements of STEM institutions, but only few make it to the top floor. We see male superstars receiving well-deserved recognitions and advancements. Unfortunately, their female counterparts are often held back or cut down by both male and female colleagues. Increasing reports of acts of discrimination reported by women in STEM fields are a symptom. Unilateral hierarchy is the root cause. Just increasing the quote/proportion of women and underrepresented minorities at an institution is therefore not enough to address the underlying problem. At Stanford Radiology, we started a major initiative to increase the representation of qualified women and other underrepresented minorities in our leadership teams in order to ensure that every member of the Department has an advocate at the leadership table, when decisions are being made. Diverse leadership teams are vital to creating a culture of respect and inclusion for everyone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]