Pathways, Potholes, and the Persistence of Women in Science: Reconsidering the Pipeline

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Training for and pursuing a career in science can be treacherous for women; many more begin than ultimately complete at every stage. Characterizing this as a pipeline problem, however, leads to a focus on individual women instead of structural conditions. The goal of the book is to offer an alternative model that better articulates the ideas of agency, constraint, and variability along the path to scientific careers for women. The chapters in this volume apply the metaphor of the road to a variety of fields and moments that are characterized as exits, pathways, and potholes. The scholars featured in this volume engaged purposefully in translation of sociological scholarship on gender, work, and organizations. They focus on the themes that emerge from their scholarship that add to or build on our existing knowledge of scientific work, while identifying tools as well as challenges to diversifying science. This book contains a multitude of insights about navigating the road while training for and building a career in science. Collectively, the chapters exemplify the utility of this approach, provide useful tools, and suggest areas of exploration for those aiming to broaden the participation of women and minorities. Although this book focuses on gendered constraints, we are attentive to fact that gender intersects with other identities, such as race/ethnicity and nativity, both of which influence participation in science. Several chapters in the volume speak clearly to the experience of underrepresented minorities in science and others consider the circumstances and integration of non-U.S. born scientists, referred to in this volume as international scientists. Disaggregating gender deepens our understanding and illustrates how identity shapes the contours of the scientific road.

Reviews

This work offers an analysis of the under representation of women in science through a compilation of 12 chapters submitted by distinguished researchers in the areas of sociology, public policy, gender studies, and STEM education. Despite increases in the number of women in the 'pipeline' toward many STEM fields, women appear to significantly disappear from the workforce at various stages in their careers. Some factors discussed include obstacles to faculty positions, tenure, and expectations for post-tenure promotions. The book is organized into five parts: 'Navigating the Scientific Path,' 'Detours, Off-Ramps, and Gendered Roadblocks in Scientific Careers,' 'What the Pipeline Misses: Gender Performance at Work,' 'Differential On-Ramps Historical Forces Shaping the Scientific Workforce,' and 'Creating a Road Map: Strategies for Persistence.' A few chapters examine employment profiles of scientists of color and/or immigrants. This work is highly recommended for courses in gender studies or those that focus on diversity in the workforce.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. * CHOICE *
This collection reports on the complex patterns of womens progress in science and engineering fields in the United States. . . .Branch and the contributors to this volume argue that the pipeline metaphor directs attention away from womens agency in taking on career opportunities and challenges, and vastly oversimplifies the complexities of career paths and the educational, employment, and policy settings that shape the obstacles and opportunities along those paths. These well-written essays provide ample evidence of the greater explanatory power of a multidimensional pathways metaphor. . . .This volume will be helpful to those focused on improving organizational and disciplinary integration, whether through a research agenda, or the active pursuit of more effective policies and practices (or both!). A broad range of methodologies are described, with sufficient detail to enable others to build on this work. Those using secondary sources have made strengths and shortcomings clear. Researchers will benefit from Branch and Alegrias conclusion that mens paths must also be studied rather than presumed. And several chapters provide useful examples of intersectional analyses. . . .We have come far from the argument that professional integration is a doomed attempt to fit a square peg in a round hole. This volume helps explain the myriad historical forces contributing to current realities as well as the dynamics of groups and organizations that might most effectively be interrupted or encouraged as we work toward equality. * Gender & Society *
This edited volume is a welcome addition to the social science literature on women and the STEM + computing disciplines. It problematizes the metaphor of a scientific workforce pipeline, which is all too commonly acceptedwithout reflectionas the basis for policy and intervention. The book examines four major components of this pipeline: STEM field selection by women, women in STEM faculty positions, women in the STEM workforce, and exogenous forces such as federal funding and immigration that shape the demographics of the STEM workforce. The volume contains many thoughtful articles by well-established members of the social science community interested in issues of representation in the STEM disciplines. -- William Aspray, Bill and Lewis Suit Professor, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin
The chapters in this book are held together by a compelling metaphor that illuminates the supports and constraints that confront women on their journey in science. As a result, the individual chapters together provide evidence for a larger understanding how institutional and systemic factors undercut women's participation in STEM.This book also brings to life why metaphors matter! -- Jane Margolis, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
This is a comprehensive account of the social forces that facilitate or impede womens paths into and out of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. By immersing the reader into the many contexts that give rise to supports for some and obstacles for others seeking to succeed in STEM careers, each chapter increases our understanding of why creating the kinds of change needed to diversify STEM work is so difficult. Each chapter provides a nuanced understanding of the many forms that pathways to scienceand the roadblocks on those roadstake. -- Sharon Bird, Oklahoma State University
This book collects the work of many leading scholars investigating the intersections of race, class, and gender with science and technology. By mapping the structural impediments to entry and persistence faced by women, people of color, and other underrepresented groups in higher education and in the workforce and providing strategies to help improve these interconnected systems, the authors lay a foundation from which we can work toward greater inclusion and diversity. -- Tim Faiella, National Center for Women & IT

Author Bio

Enobong Hannah Branch is associate professor of sociology at University of Massachusetts-Amherst.