Mind the Gap: Women in STEM Career Breaks
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-27242010000100011Keywords:
career breaks, STEM research and education, career pathways, career gender differences, work-life balance, careers in higher educationAbstract
There are two issues related to women and pathways to STEM careers. Recruitment to the field is one aspect. The second issue is the retention of women in STEM fields. This paper reports on the structured interviews with 14 women who have taken career breaks sometime after receiving their PhD in order to understand the pressures in place to take such breaks, how women remain connected (or not) to their field during the break and issues related to re-entering the field after a career break. Suggestions based on the interviews include enhancements for women’s preparation for STEM fields and changes to the STEM culture itself. We suggest the inclusion workshops to detail what they might expect in their career and a provision for networking opportunities. We urge changes in the fee structure for society membership, differences in how resumes are reviewed as well as changes in maternity and child care leave.Downloads
References
BLACKBURN, E. (2009). Nobel Laureate: Fix the Scientific Career Ladder and Let Women Climb, December 2009. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/07/nobel-laureate-fix-the-scientific-career-ladder-let-women-climb/ [Accessed April 4 2010].
BLICKENSTAFF, J.C. (2005). Women and science careers: leaky pipeline or gender filter? Gender and Education, 17(4), October 2005, 369-386.
BRAINARD, S.G., Ailes-Sengers, l. (1994). Mentoring female engineering students: A model program at the University of Washington. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 1 (2), 123-135.
CLEWELL, B.C., Campbell, P.B. (2008). Taking Stock: Where We've Been, Where We Are, Where We're Going. August 10, 2008. http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=1000779[Accessed April 4 2010]
HEWLETT, S. A. (2007). Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping talented women on the road to success. Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge.
HILL, C., Corbett, C., St. Rose, A. (2010). Why So Few? Women in Science, technology, Engineering and Mathematics. AAUW, Washington.
INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS (IOP) (2004). Career Breaks 2004. IOP, London.
KAHVECI, A., Southerland, S. A., Gilmer, P. J. (2006). Retaining undergraduate women in science, mathematics, and engineering. Journal of College Science Teaching, 36 (Nov-Dec), 34.
MASON, M.A., Goulden, M. (2002). Do Babies Matter: The Effect of Family Formation on the Lifelong Careers of Academic Men and Women. Academe, November-December 2002, 88 (6), 21-27.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT) (1999). A Study on the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT. The MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XI, No. 4.
MAVRIPLIS, C., Heller, R.S., Sorensen, C.C., Snyder, H.D. (2005). The "FORWARD to Professorship" Workshop, ASEE Paper 2005-1352.
MAVRIPLIS, C., Beil, C., Dam, K., Heller, R., Sorensen, C., (2010). An Analysis of the FORWARD to professorship Workshop - What Works to Entice and Prepare Women for Professorship? In: Godfroy-Genin, A.S. (ed.) Women in Engineering and Technology Research: The PROMETEA Conference Proceedings. LIT Verlag, Berlin.
MCNEIL, L., Sher, M. (1999). Report on the Dual-Career Couple Survey, http://www.physics.wm.edu/~sher/survey.html [Accessed March 31 2010]
NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD (NSB) (2010). Science and Engineering Indicators 2010, NSB 10-01, Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation.
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) (2010). Form 100 - Instructions, http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/OnlineServices-ServicesEn Ligne/instructions/100/e.asp [Accessed April 19, 2010]
PRESTON, A.E. (2004). Leaving Science: Occupational Exit from Scientific Careers. Russell Sage Foundation, New York.
SANDLER, B.R., (1992). The Campus Climate Revisited: Chilly for Women Faculty, Administrators and Graduate Students. American Association of Colleges, Washington.
SEYMOUR, E., Hewitt, N.M. (1997). Talking About Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences. Westview Press, Boulder.
SHERIDAN, J., Fine, E., Winchell, J., Pribbenow, C. M., Carnes, M., Handelsman, J., (2007). Searching for Excellence & Diversity: Does Training Faculty Search Committees Improve Hiring of Women?, American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) 2007 Conference Proceedings.
STEWART, A., Malley, J., LaVaque-Manty, D., co-editors (2007). Transforming Science and Engineering: Advancing Academic Women. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
THOMSON, E.A. (2000). Study points to career/family concerns among women engineering faculty, Massachusetts Institute of Technology News Office, http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2000/women-0329.html [Accessed March 31, 2010]
TROWER, C.A., Bleak, J.L. (2004). Study of New Scholars. Gender: Statistical Report [Universities]. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA.
WOLF-WENDEL, L., Twombly, S., Rice, S. (2003). The Two-Body Problem - Dual- Career-Couple Hiring Practices in Higher Education. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2010 Journal of Technology Management & Innovation
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
