Sarah Hoops

UWRT 1102-040

Mrs. Weber

3/9/2017

Annotated Bibliography

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.

DOI: 10.1109/ISECon.2014.6891055

The purpose of this conference article is to explain why there is a break in women in

STEM related careers and majors. Improving recruitment and retention in STEM fields,

especially for women has been a great challenge. Women are highly wanted in fields including

mathematics and engineering but they are over represented in fields including biology,

psychology, and life sciences. 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. By not

having many women going into STEM careers causes women to not have a lot of main roles

making other women going in to be less successful role models. 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. The study discussed how men and women undergraduates use social coping and how

social coping is related to commitment to major and performance of men and women. In STEM

fields there is little room for collaborative work, supporting each other, and peer or faculty-

student interaction in STEM fields. 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. 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.

This article shows how drastic the need there is for women in certain STEM related

careers and majors. There is an obvious problem that needs to be addressed and understood.

Freiwot explained how much of a need there was and explained the problems that need to be

fixed. Freiwot did not necessarily give answers to fix the problems, but the best way to solve a

problem is to understand what exactly the problem entails. This article shares some of the same

views as the third article I chose by Nimmesgern. Both authors emphasized the stereotyping that

is involved in STEM related fields revolving around women. Stereotypes can cause women to

steer away from STEM related fields from the start, or turn them away after they have already

gotten into the field.

Alhaddab, A. A, (March 7th 2015). Future scientists: How womens and minorities math self-

efficacy and science perception affect their STEM major selection. Integrated STEM Education

Conference (ISEC), Princeton NJ.

This article was very focused on students self-efficacy involving STEM subjects and

fields. Even though this source did not help much with solving the problem, it gave a better idea

of what the problem actually is. The article stated that if a student has a low self confidence in

succeeding in STEM, he/she will not seek STEM majors. To get more women interested we

need to boost their confidence in their abilities and skills. Continuing with minorities in STEM

fields, it is important to remember they are just as likely to have a STEM major; however they

are more likely to switch to non-STEM majors. Math and science preparations are critical in

insuring successful transition to STEM college majors, yet many social cognitive factors

intervene and hinder the process.Also, female students perceiving high school science

preparation as a great deal in preparing for college are 1.5 times as likely to enroll in a STEM

major, and students with great self confidence in their math knowledge and skills are, about 1.54

more likely to major in STEM than participants with low levels of math self-efficacy. Math and

science self-efficacy is important to this study, because other studies focus more on achievement

scores in STEM programs. There needs to be more focus put on other factors than just academic.

The Social Cognitive Career theory involves a combination of self-efficacy, expectations and

personal goals, and how the combination of these relationships affect individual's career choices.

This article states that all groups of students must receive equal chances of successful

participation, especially those who continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields. This article

is important because it talked more about confidence and not as much stereotyping and things
women cannot help. This article took a very different approach at the subject which makes the

readers do the same. There are many different things that are adding to make this problem worse

but this shows somethings can be changed by the women experiencing this problem. This article

connected well with the first article I chose by Frehiwot. They both explained thoroughly what

the problem is and what may be causing it.

Nimmesgern, H. (Feb. 8th 2016). Why Are Women Underrepresented in STEM Fields. Chemistry

a European Journal, 22 (11), 3529-3530.

DOI:10.1002/chem.201600035

This article pointed out the problems as well as showed the initiatives being taken to help

girls get into STEM related careers. Just to point out two of the problems this article shared:

One fact observed is that women step out of the field of study after university while men are

more likely to stay in STEM and Women in science are still paid less, promoted less, and win

fewer grants. Hearing this is not something that necessarily draws women in, it is more likely to

push women away from STEM related fields. Many women are aware of these problems so they

do not attempt to go into STEM because they are not appealing. A 2010 UK survey showed that

women spent more hours per week teaching and fewer hours conducting research than male

academics, putting them at a disadvantage for promotion This is one of the main reasons

women are less likely to be a higher role model for other women. If we could change this and

encourage women to do more research instead of teaching we could increase the number of role

models younger girls have as well as promoting women in STEM careers. Despite the problems
there are a number of organizations set up to combat stereotyping and to encourage girls and

women towards careers in STEM. Examples of these organizations include WISE campaign,

UKRC. These organizations are essential for girls who may be interested but also unsure it

STEM will be right for them. We know there is a lack of women in STEM related fields and

majors but we can make steps to increase the numbers and fix the problems in place now.

This article was important because it showed there are steps being applied, and this

problem is getting acknowledged. This article included the idea that woman get into STEM but

are more likely to move to a non-STEM major, which the first and second article I chose did as

well. This shows there is a major issue in keeping women in STEM related careers. This article

and Why So Few Women in STEM: The Role of Social Coping both discussed the small

percentage of woman who get promoted less and get awarded less than men do.

Hill, C. (2015). Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

The American Association of University Women.

Hill discussed how stereotypes can be a major cause to explain the low percent of women

in STEM fields, implicit bias is still involved in gender. 70% of test takers more readily

associated male with science and female with arts then the reverse. This percent shows

association to different genders to different majors and career paths. A career path should not be

associated with gender; it should be associated with whoever is interested in it. Many women

push away the idea of going into a STEM related career because they do not believe they are

smart enough to pursue it. This shows there needs to be more of a growth mindset with STEM
females, meaning intelligence can develop, effort can make a difference in difficult situations,

and confidence can grow. Women may be exiting STEM fields due to a loss of confidence when

they think intelligence is fixed instead of intelligence grows. As well as pointing out the major

problems including stereotypes Hill also discussed personal recommendations to women. The

recommendations to get girls interested in STEM including but not limited to are: spreading the

word about womens achievements, teach them intellectual skills, teach growth-mindset, help

recognize their career relevant skills, encourage them to take STEM classes in high school, and

make performance standards and expectations clear. I think all of these recommendations are

very valuable and could already make a huge difference if they were enforced. High school is a

great time to start getting women interested because it is the time they are trying to figure out

what exactly they are thinking about pursuing as a major or in a career.

This article showed how powerful stereotypes can be involving how people think. The

stereotypes around mathematics and engineering can actually scare women away from the

careers. Through my research, this is the first article that discussed the growth mindset. The

growth mindset is something I continue to remind myself of. Knowledge grows and increases

there are always more to learn, knowledge is not stagnant. Women should not let their fear of not

being smart enough scare them out of going into STEM careers. This article connected with most

of the other articles because of the focus it had on stereotyping women.

Elfman, L. (Mar. 22nd 2010). Report Examines Why Women are Under-represented in STEM

Fields. Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Fairfax VA.

http://diverseeducation.com/article/13640/

Stereotyping and confidence involving women is the main focus of Elfmans article.

Studies have shown that girls and young women express interest in math and science at similar

rates as boys and young men, but somewhere between that initial interest and graduation from

college they have chosen another path. This shows not enough is being done to encourage girls

into STEM programs. Starting early is the best idea to get girls interested before they start

second guess there intelligence or their ability. Woman are not leaving because they are

unsuccessful, the research says the climate of some of these college departments dont facilitate

womens participation and progress. They leave because they feel unwelcome or they just

havent fit in (Elfman, 2010). If we are not attempting to help women thrive and succeed we are

just enhancing the problem. When I first started researching I guess that women were not

interested to begin with but this article completely demolished that idea. Women are interested

but the system is not effectively working so were actually diminishing their interest somehow.

The literature showed female undergraduates in STEM majors often reported lower confidence

than their male counterparts for a variety of reasons, including professors being overly critical

and at times not supportive, and male students being antagonistic. The female students described

a sense of feeling like they didnt belong or fit in (Elfman, 2010). We need to be encouraging

womens confidence not diminishing it.

There seems to be an obvious trend between stereotyping and confidence levels of

women. Articles one, two, and four all explain how womens confidence in their skills and

abilities are being reduced. To get more women to gain interest we need to promote the idea that
they can conquer a STEM career to gain their confidence. We should be helping women succeed

into STEM careers instead of hindering them.