Sarah Hoops

UWRT 1102-040

Weber

3/3/2017

Writing Response Six

To begin my research I first went to the University of North Carolina at Charlottes online library

database. I then chose the engineering database to provide information more focused on my

topic. The two words I used to start my search to find a peer reviewed scholarly articles were

STEM and women. I found numerous articles with different information I could use in my

inquiry project that would support different sides and views. The research I found allowed me to

further form my view and specify exactly what I wanted my inquiry projects focus to be.

The purpose of the conference article I chose explains why there is a break in women

entering and continuing in STEM related careers and majors. I learned that women are highly

wanted in fields including mathematics and engineering because of the lack. In 2009, only

about 12% of the math and engineering bachelors degrees awarded in the United States go to

women. In physical science, computer sciences, mathematics, and engineering, women only

represent 30% of undergraduate students (Frehiwot, 2014). These statistics show just how

important and uncommon women are in fields like mathematics and engineering. The statistics

also prove why am I writing about this topic, it is an issue that seems to be often overlooked.

This article and the other articles I researched explained once woman do enter the field they
experience unequal treatment directly and indirectly causing woman to switch into a different

major and away from STEM. This shows an example of the pipeline model. This is about

keeping woman in STEM fields once they choose to be a part of this kind of major. There is a

leaking pipeline which means women are leaving STEM pathways at all stages in their career.

In STEM fields there is little room for collaborative work, supporting each other, and peer or

faculty-student interaction in STEM fields (Frehiwot, 2014). These unsupportive characteristics

are part of the lack of women in STEM majors and careers as well as stereotypes. The

stereotypes shown in this article include, women having inferior math and science abilities, the

world is male exclusive/ masculinity of engineering culture, and woman experience a

situational burden that interferes with their performance (Frehiwot, 2014). The situational

burden women experiences include insignificant events that collectively exert outcomes that

undermine the woman in the fields self-confidence in career aspirations and academic standing.

Many of the arguments and point Frehiwot had related closely to other articles I chose for my

annotated bibliography. There were a lot of connections throughout my research that reassured

the points they were making were valid. Frehiwot addressed other scholars throughout his article

to prove the points he was trying to make. Frehiwot often used information from the article

Undergraduate women in science and engineering: Effects of faculty, fields, and institutions

over time. This enhanced the trust I had in the points he was making and backed them up.
References

Frehiwot, W. W., & Dotger, S. (March 8th 2014). Why So Few Women in STEM: The Role of
Social Coping. 4th IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference, Princeton NJ.