VanDusen 1

Daken VanDusen

Mr. Johnson

AP Seminar

30 April 2021

Increasing the Number of Female Role Models: An Answer to the Gender Gap in STEM

In America, there has been a constant gender gap between men and women in STEM

courses and professions. “Women earn 58% of bachelor’s degrees overall, yet in the STEM

fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) women are earning only 36% of

baccalaureate degrees” (McCullough 1). This statistic essentially states that men obtain 64% of

the STEM degrees, which is almost doubling the amount of degrees women earn in STEM. So

what exactly is causing this gap? A major issue for women in STEM is the lack of role models.

Without proper influences, women are not as prepared for their fields as men, and often drop out

of these fields. Therefore, more should be done to increase the amount of women role models in

STEM in America in order to close the gender gap located in STEM.

Currently, “women account for 40% of full-time STEM faculty at degree-granting

institutions yet comprise less than 25% of the faculty in computer and information sciences

(22%), mathematics (19%), physical sciences (18%), and engineering (12%)” (Swafford 62).

Although there are few, the women involved in these courses often experience bias or

stereotyping from their male counterparts. With few female role models, these women often feel

stranded, and many choose to leave the profession.

First, women are often expected to “prove themselves” to their male counterparts. A

study done by the Journal of Research in Gender Studies found that “roughly two-thirds of both

the women interviewed (66.7%) and those surveyed (63.9%) reported Prove-It-Again bias”
 VanDusen 2

(Williams 16) within their STEM career. Prove-It-Again bias occurs when women have to

provide more evidence of their understanding of the topic than men do, essentially having to

prove themselves twice as much as men do. In fields, such as engineering, where “women

account for approximately one in ten professionals among traditional engineering professions,”

(Swafford 62) bias occurs more often, proving that the lack of women in certain fields leads to

the increase in bias, such as prove-it-again bias. However, prove-it-again bias is not the only bias

women face in male-dominated fields. Women often face maternity bias as well. Oftentimes,

“girls and women are still more heavily burdened with family responsibilities” (Hill 23) than

men, and this “may compete with their choices to lead creative lives” (Hill 23). This has come to

be known as maternal wall bias, which also includes “descriptive stereotyping that results in

strong assumptions that women lose their work commitment and competence after they have

children as well as prescriptive stereotyping that penalizes mothers who remain indisputably

committed” (Williams 16). In society, women are usually seen as the caretakers of children.

Workplaces, however, penalize women more than men, as having children in harder professions,

such as STEM, is generally not normalized. Therefore, because there are so few women in

STEM, these professions simply do not account for childbirth and the time women need related

to childbirth. Role models, however, can help change these stereotypes to better suit the

environment for all genders. This concept can be seen in Serena Williams’ journey. Although she

is a professional tennis player, she, too, experiences the bias women face in male-dominated

areas. When Serena had given birth to her children, she wore leggings at a match to prevent

blood clots. Serena, seen as a role model by many women, was the reason this clothing rule was

changed to better fit the needs of women. After her penalization, “the WTA stated that it would

not penalize women for wearing leggings or compression shorts in lieu of a skirt at their
 VanDusen 3

tournaments” (Mlambo-Ngcuka 7). Serena had caused a positive change for women because of

her fame and “role model” status. Thus, the increase of female role models in men-dominated

fields, such as STEM, will increase the amount of women who prefer to go into STEM, as it will

create a more gender-inclusive environment by reducing the stereotypes women face.

Those who argue that women have faced bias for years and that the bias cannot be fixed

are not completely incorrect. In today’s society, it is almost normalized for a woman to

experience bias in the workplace, whether it is the color of her skin, or the birth of her children.

However, the implementation of more role models could help solve this issue. “Countries with

greater representations of women in science consistently show lower gender-science stereotypes”

(Bloodhart 2). With more women joining STEM fields, stereotypes can be broken, pathing the

way for future STEM generations. According to a study by Joan Williams, a legal scholar whose

work focuses on women in the workplace, “a Latina in microbiology and biochemistry

commented that the Prove-It Again problems she encountered in the early years of her career

stopped when she entered an environment that was gender balanced” (Williams 22). This

evidence proves that the increase of women in the STEM workplace can help reduce the bias

women face. Overall, this increase of women will increase the retention rate of women in STEM

professions, as more women will now have other women to look up to, essentially creating more

role models in the STEM field, successfully helping to close the gender gap between men and

women in the STEM fields.

Secondly, women often feel unconfident or unqualified due to stereotypes in

male-dominated fields, which impacts performance and retention rate. Women will often develop

negative stereotypes about themselves due to their surroundings, such as influencers or the

media. According to Joshua Aronson, Ph.D., an associate professor of developmental, social, and
 VanDusen 4

educational psychology at New York University, ”constant reinforcement of such stereotypes in

school, the media, and at home can have significant psychological effects and can undermine

aspirations in an area of interest” (Jones 60). This loss of interest causes the retention rate of

women in the STEM field to drop, therefore widening the gender gap. Not only this, but the

women who choose to stay and doubt their careers often experience discomfort as well. “When

students have doubts about belonging in a STEM career, their academic achievement and

engagement with STEM content is hindered” (Hutton 17). Overall, “as confidence drops, so does

interest” (Jung 31). However, with the implementation of more female role models, these

stereotypes women face and place upon themselves can be countered. According to the United

States Department of Education, “exposing girls to female role models who are successful in

math and science can counteract ‘stereotype threat’— negative stereotypes that girls may

develop about themselves” (Jung 28). These role models help rid of stereotypes women place

upon themselves, which would help improve performance and retention rate in the STEM field.

Overall, this would help close the gap between men and women in STEM fields.

Lastly, women are heavily under-represented in the STEM field. The STEM fields are

male dominated. In fact, a study done by Laura McCullough, who has obtained a phD in gender,

science, research, and consulting, found throughout the STEM fields that “no field had more than

30% women in the chair position” (McCullough 4). With the lack of women in chair positions,

women may often feel discouraged, as most of their CEOs or bosses will be men who may not

understand feminine issues or the barriers women face that men do not. However, leadership

positions are not the only place where females are overwhelmed by their male counterparts. “In

2014, women accounted for only 26 percent of professional computing occupations” (U.S.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). Likewise, women are heavily under-represented in computing
 VanDusen 5

occupations, which reflects equally into college courses being taken by women. A study from

Jane Margolis, a senior researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles’s Graduate

School of Education and Information Studies, found that “women constituted only 7 percent of

undergraduate computer science majors” (Jones 62). These statistics reflect equally onto other

STEM fields besides life and health sciences, which women have been proven to take more of

than men. With the lack of women within these fields, it is often hard for women to find role

models. A study conducted by Laura Jung, a medical writer, found that “a high percentage of

participants could not identify women in technology, but could identify men in technology on

television or in the media,” which indicates that “women in technology are rarely portrayed in

the media or on television” (Jung 30). With small amounts of portrayal in media, women do not

have the proper role models they need in comparison to men. Therefore, without proper

representation, or role models, women will most likely stay gapped in STEM fields in terms of

the amount of women in STEM.

Some, however, may argue that women are not under-represented in STEM fields.

“Women complete a higher proportion of Bio courses than do men” (Stout 495), which is

classified as a STEM course. Therefore, they may have the proper representation within this

field. Women also “ comprise about half the M.D.s, two-thirds of psychology Ph.D.’s, and

three-quarters of veterinary medicine doctorates” (Hill 19). Thus, they are outnumbering the men

in these life science areas. While this is a great argument to make, as women do complete more

life science courses than do men, and usually have more representation in those fields, it does not

pertain to the majority of STEM. In other sciences, such as physics, men have persistently been

outnumbering women, and in engineering “in 1960, for instance, the proportion of women in

engineering was just 1 percent, and by 2000 that figure had risen to only about 11 percent”
 VanDusen 6

(Jones 60).“In the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) women are

earning only 36% of baccalaureate degrees” (McCullough 1), meaning that women are

consistently outnumbered by men in the majority of STEM fields. By increasing the number of

women in STEM through positive role models, women will have more influences to look up to.

In correlation to the rising numbers of female role models in the STEM field, the numbers of

women in STEM will increase, helping to close the gender gap between women and men in

STEM.

In conclusion, more should be done to increase the number of women role models in

STEM fields in order to close the gender gap in the STEM field in America. Increasing role

models will reduce bias in the STEM fields, boost confidence in STEM women, and will solve

the underrepresentation issue for women in the fields. Providing STEM women leaders and

women workers with more air time in the media can be a start to boost the confidence of other

women, gaining more role models as time passes. As said by Laura Jung, “with more positive

female television characters in the media to represent a field that is dominated by men, more

women may consider technology as a major” (Jung 28). Assuming these presumptions will work

for all male-dominated STEM fields, steps can be made to air more women in STEM in hopes to

close the gender gap in STEM in America. Women are just as equally important as men in

STEM fields. Therefore, it is time they have a stronger voice in our society, and have the proper

efforts made to increase the number of female role models for these women in STEM.
 VanDusen 7

Works Cited

Bloodhart, Brittany, et al. "Outperforming yet Undervalued: Undergraduate Women

in STEM." PLoS ONE, vol. 15, no. 6, June 2020, pp. 1–13. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0234685.

Hill, Theodore, and Erika Rogers. "Gender Gaps in Science: The Creativity

Factor." Mathematical Intelligencer, vol. 34, no. 2, July 2012, pp.

19–26. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s00283-012-9297-9

Hutton, Carrie. "Using Role Models to Increase Diversity in STEM." Technology

and Engineering Teacher, vol. 79, no. 3, Nov. 2019, pp. 16–19.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1232265&site=ehost-live

Jones, Jenny. "Closing the Gender Gap." Civil Engineering (08857024), vol. 80,

no. 7, July 2010, pp. 60–63. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&db=aci&AN=501634464&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Jung, Laura, et al. "Closing the Gender Gap in the Technology Major."

Information Systems Education Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp.

26–41. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1135665&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Liu, Yi-hui, et al. "The Investigation of STEM Self-Efficacy and Professional

Commitment to Engineering among Female High School Students." South African

Journal of Education, vol. 34, no. 2, Jan. 2014. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/
 VanDusen 8

login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1137221&site=ehost-live

McCullough, Laura. "Proportions of Women in STEM Leadership in the Academy in

the USA." Education Sciences, vol. 10, Jan. 2020. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1241142&site=ehost-live

Mlambo-Ngcuka, Phumzile. "Empowering Women Through Sport." Olympic Review -

Issue 110, International Olympic Committee, 2019,

olympicreview.touchlines.com/110/1-1

Perez-Felkner, Lara, et al. "Are 2-Year Colleges the Key? Institutional

Variation and the Gender Gap in Undergraduate STEM Degrees." Journal of

Higher Education, vol. 90, no. 2, Mar. 2019, pp. 181–209. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1080/00221546.2018.1486641

Phelan, Shelley A., et al. "BASE (Broadening Access to Science Education): A

Research and Mentoring Focused Summer STEM Camp Serving Underrepresented

High School Girls." Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research,

vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp. 65–72. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1141075&site=ehost-live

Rankine, Claudia. "The Meaning of Serena Williams." The New York Times, The New

York Times Company, 25 Aug. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/magazine/

The-meaning-of-serena-williams.html

Stout, Jane, et al. "Gender Roles and Stereotypes about Science Careers Help

Explain Women and Men's Science Pursuits." Sex Roles, vol. 75, no. 9–10,

Nov. 2016, pp. 490–499. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0647-5

Swafford, Marshall, and Ryan Anderson. "Addressing the Gender Gap: Women's
 VanDusen 9

Perceived Barriers to Pursuing STEM Careers." Journal of Research in

Technical Careers, vol. 4, no. 1, May 2020, pp. 61–74. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1254004&site=ehost-live

WILLIAMS, JOAN C., et al. "Tools for Change: Boosting the Retention of Women in

the Stem Pipeline." Journal of Research in Gender Studies, vol. 6, no. 1,

Jan. 2016, pp. 11–75. EBSCOhost, doi:10.22381/jrgs6120161

Wyss, Vanessa L., et al. "Increasing Middle School Student Interest in STEM

Careers with Videos of Scientists." International Journal of Environmental

and Science Education, vol. 7, no. 4, Oct. 2012, pp. 501–522.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/

login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ997137&site=ehost-live