Taylor Fellenz

English 138T
March 23, 2016
Audience: Departments of neuroscience at colleges

Pay Gap For Women in Neuroscience

Neuroscientist Professor Rippon believes that gender differences
appear early in society and are based on stereotypes that society
makes about how boys and girls should behave and which toys they
should play with. Segregating the way children play with toys is bad.
Giving girls dolls and boys cars can be universal in the development of
the brain. Usually boy toys are more training based whereas girl toys
are much more nurturing. It is sending out messages about what is
expected of a boy or girl in the future (Knapton, "Men and Women Do
Not Have Different Brains, Claims Neuroscientist"). This early message
that children are exposed to at a young age is why the pay gap in the
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field is so
extensive especially in Neuroscience.
Even though women hold about half of the jobs in the US
economy they still hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs. Women with
a STEM degree are less likely than males with STEM degrees to work in
the STEM occupation. They are more likely to work in healthcare and
education. Men are much more likely than women to have a STEM

occupation regardless of the education they received. Even though a

higher-level education corresponds to the likelihood of having a STEM
profession for both genders, women are still far behind men in the
employment in that specific field. On average men earn $36.34 and
women earn $31.11 per hour in STEM jobs. Every dollar that is earned
by a man in the STEM field, women earn 14 percent less. The
association of Neuroscience departments and Programs in 2003
reported that half of the neuroscience graduates were female but only
about 25% of tenure-track faculty were female. Over half of the
tenured were men. Only 22% of tenured women were full professors
(Beede, et al.).
The reasons for the low numbers of women in science careers
are fiercely debated. Some people think it is because discrimination in
institutions. For example, in 1999 at MIT, female faculty had lower
salaries and fewer resources than men with the same status. Another
possibility could be that women invest more of their time in home life.
The US National Science Foundation in 2004 found that gender
differences in career success was likely from the different effects of
marriage and family on men and women. Women who were married
and started a family were less likely to be in tenure track positions or
to have the same tenure that their male counterparts possessed. Males
showed no effect of their family status. Women who got married and
had children later on were more likely to have tenure. This is

suggesting that if you started to have a family early in your career,

then it might interfere with your career success. Having a family can
be disastrous to a womens career but not affect a mans career
whatsoever ("Women in Neuroscience: A Numbers Game).

Recent studies have been done to research the stereotypes and

discrimination that women face in the science work field. For example,
researchers at Yale conducted a study to see the gender disparities at
their school, which is seen in figure 1. In the classrooms there is an
equal number of male and female students and both genders
participate equally during class. Corinne Moss-Rausin and colleagues
looked into the effects of gender bias, showing the salaries of female
scientists as compared to males, conducted the study. Researchers
created a fictional student and sent out the students application to the
top science professors and research-intensive universities in the US.
The professors were asked to evaluate the students resume and how
likely they would hire the student, how much they would pay the
student, and how willing they would be to mentor the student. All the
applications sent out were identical, except that half of the applications
were male; John and half were female; Jennifer. Their results showed
that both male and female faculty at these institutions were biased
towards male students over female students. Northwestern also did
this study and came up with the same results (Midura, "John Vs.
Jennifer: A Battle of the Sexes).

Figure
The research

1:

team at
Northwestern
concluded that the
facultys preferences
were based on
gender biases
reinforced by
cultural stereotypes.
The researchers
came up with a couple of questions that would help explain their
findings and how they might apply to other parts of the career
pathways. Do negative experiences at the postdoctoral level
determine womens decisions about staying in the field? Do women
receive less encouragement from faculty, undermining their confidence
and ambition ("Women in Neuroscience)?
A study done at Wayne State University addressed some of these
questions. The researchers examined more than 300 letters of
recommendation for a faculty position at a medical school looking for
signs of gender bias. In subtle ways, the letters written for the women
were inadequate to what the letters for men had. Women were
described as thoughtful and considerate, while the men were
described as intelligent and productive. The letters for women

contained more negative and irrelevant language and faint praise than
letters written for men. For example applicants titles, such as clinical
assistant professor was used more for men, while women had the titles
such as lady physician ("Women in Neuroscience").
There is a stereotype held that boys possess more ability in STEM
than girls, which has been found to impact a childs performance.
Several studies have found that children are socialized differently
regarding mathematics and science based on their gender. Boys
receive more encouragement in math and science from their parents
and teachers. Mothers even overestimate boys abilities compared to
girls. When discussing models in an exhibit at a science museum,
parents have been found to explain a scientific concept three times
more to boys than girls (Chang, Bridging the Gender Gap:
Encouraging Girls in STEM Starts at Home").
Catherine Sandhofer and Christia Brown conducted a study of
everyday speech between mothers and their toddlers (preschool-aged
children with an average age 22 months). Sandhofers and Browns
findings were surprising, even at this young age mothers spoke to boys
about three times more than girls about numbers and quantities. For
example, phrases like he has two eyes and How many feet do you
have? appeared in mother son conversations three times more often
than in mother daughter conversations. The significant amount of
confidence that boys show in elementary school could be influenced by

early experience they have at home by their parents (Chang, Bridging

the Gender Gap: Encouraging Girls in STEM Starts at Home").
Alicia Chang at the Huffington Post had an idea as to why young
boys are more exposed to numbers and math concepts than young
girls. She believes it is from how deep gender stereotypes are
ingrained in our culture. This was shown not only in the study done by
Sandhofer and Brown but through the gender gap in STEM in
kindergartners all the way up through the ratio among tenure faculty
and at the university level (Chang, Bridging the Gender Gap:
Encouraging Girls in STEM Starts at Home"). Early exposure to numbers
might lead to the differences in stem related interests and confidence
in young girls. This research can also lead to another inquiry, which is
the main focus in society and that is the pay gap.
Passing The Paycheck Fairness Act could be one of the solutions
to closing the pay gap in neuroscience. The Paycheck Fairness Act will
update the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The Equal Pay act was a law that
was signed by President Kennedy but the law did not fulfill its promise
of equal pay. The Paycheck Fairness Act will require employers to
demonstrate that wages are based on factors other than sex,
strengthening penalties for equal pay violations, have Department of
Labor to collect wage related data, and to acquire training for the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission staff to identify wage disputes
("Equal Pay for Equal Work: Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act).

In the article Bridging the Gender Gap: Encouraging Girls in

STEM Starts at Home" by the Huffington Post, Alicia Chang makes a
good point in her closing statement. The first step in creating
meaningful change is to acknowledge existing challenges (Chang,
Bridging the Gender Gap: Encouraging Girls in STEM Starts at Home").
Instead of focusing on the stereotypes that discourage girls and
women from pursuing a job in the STEM field Chang suggests to bring
awareness to gender differences to girls. She proposes that these
differences could help us learn how to be knowledgeable when we
speak to girls, mentor young women, and support university faculty
members throughout their entire careers. Chang then goes on to say
how she is dedicating the next phase of her career to closing the gap
between the development, practice, and theory to create meaningful
experiences for both boys and girls (Chang, Bridging the Gender Gap:
Encouraging Girls in STEM Starts at Home").
Another women who has dedicated her life to help close the gap
in the STEM field is Susan Hockfield, who is President of Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). She delivered an inspiring speech at
Qualcomm in San Diego for the second annual convergence of Women,
Technology and Innovation Event to discuss the building of more girls
and women in STEM and Information and Communications Technology
(ICT). Her speech discussed her personal journey to success, how she
got her first microscope in fifth grade to becoming a neuroscientist and

the first women to be president of MIT (Gavin, "Wanted: Women to

Lead in the Fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math |
Qualcomm). Her insight can teach us that women should encourage
more girls to be in STEM jobs and to inspire women to pursue their
passions, even when they are deterred from them.
If society exposed girls early on to numbers, concepts, and an
interest in science and math fields there would not be an alarming gap
in STEM fields especially neuroscience that we have today. If parents
and teachers exposed girls to the same toys, interests, and
encouraged them to strive in these fields there could be an increase in
women in STEM. If these same influences introduced them to
inspirations like Susan Hockfield; who has become a renowned
neuroscientist and first women president of MIT, when society has tried
to steer girls away, the pay gap in neuroscience would drastically
decrease.

Works Cited
Beede, David N., Tiffany A. Julian, David Langdon, George Mckittrick,
Beethika Khan, and Mark E. Doms. "Women in STEM: A Gender
Gap to Innovation." SSRN Electronic Journal SSRN Journal (n.d.):
n. pag.Women in STEM:A Gender Gap to Innovation. U.S.
Department of Commerce, Aug. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

Chang, Alicia. "Bridging the Gender Gap: Encouraging Girls in STEM

Starts at Home." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27
Dec. 2013. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

"Equal Pay for Equal Work: Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act." American
Civil Liberties Union. American Civil Liberties Union, n.d. Web. 29
Mar. 2016.

Gavin, Erin. "Wanted: Women to Lead in the Fields of Science,

Technology, Engineering and Math | Qualcomm." Qualcomm.
Qualcomm, 08 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.

Knapton, Sarah. "Men and Women Do Not Have Different Brains,

Claims Neuroscientist." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group,
08 Mar. 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.

Midura, Margaretta. "John Vs. Jennifer: A Battle of the Sexes." Yale

Scientific Magazine. Yale Scientific Magazine, 19 Feb. 2013. Web.
24 Mar. 2016.

"Women in Neuroscience." Society for Neuroscience. Society for

Neuroscience, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

"Women in Neuroscience:A Numbers Game." Nature.com. Nature

Publishing Group, 2006. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.