Gender Stereotypes In STEM

Intersectionality In order to increase diversity in STEM, one must look at the relationship between race and gender in order to analyze how it impacts engineering. Donna Riley states, “we often separate gender and race as discrete isolatable categories of analysis, when in fact these identities (and others) intersect.” (Riley 2011, 4). Current efforts treat gender and race as different categories, but they both shape one another. According to Riley, feminists of color have critiqued the sole analysis of gender and race. Multiple identities simultaneously shape people’s experiences with oppression and privilege (Riley 2011, 4). In order to fully understand minorities experiences in STEM, universities and other institutions have to take into …show more content…
One of the ways these stereotypes can negatively affect women is through stereotype threat. Gender-STEM stereotypes can artificially decrease women’s performance during evaluations (Hammer 2016, 169). Hammer states that these stereotypes are present, but they may not have the same effect on all women. In the study, Hammer looks at European-American and African-American women in order to determine if gender stereotypes have an effect across all races. Through an intersectional approach, Hammer determined that African-American women were more likely to pick STEM and had weaker implicit gender-STEM stereotypes. Most studies only look at women as whole, but they do not analyze how race factors into the participation of STEM. This study showed that African-American men and women were more likely to choose STEM as a field, but they did not look at how many applied and remained in STEM. While African-American students were more likely to go into STEM, there is still a discrepancy between students who are likely to choose STEM and those who graduate. Further work needs to be done in order to ensure that more people in under-represented groups graduate college and enter a career in the STEM