Discipline: Science and Mathematics Education
Subcategory: Education
Session: 1
Room: Embassy
Kathryn Watson - University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Co-Author(s): Dr. Sylvia Mendez, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs
This paper examines the experience of including women postdoctoral scholars in STEM fields and their considerations of career and family planning. It is widely known that there is a lack of diversity in STEM fields, especially in academia, partly because women feel they must choose between career and family due to the demands of academic careers (NPA Advance, 2011). Historically, research positions were not designed to be compatible with having a family, as traditionally these roles were filled by bread winning men, thus further barring women from entering academia (Lee, Williams & Li, 2017). Additionally, the choices of obtaining a tenure track position and/or having a family usually overlap as a women’s optimal fertility begins to decline by 31. (Lee, Williams, & Li, 2017; Williams & Creci, 2012). Concerningly, women who are married are 35% less likely to enter tenure track positions than married men and of these women, those with children are even less likely to obtain a tenure track position (Williams & Creci, 2012). Furthermore, postdoctoral women with children are more likely than their peers to cite children as their primary reason for not choosing an academic path (NPA Advance, 2011). While research has been conducted on the leaky STEM pipeline, there is a scarcity of research on women postdoctoral perceptions of family/career tradeoffs, therefore this study was designed to gain insight on postdoctoral womens’ considerations of their family and career plans. This was an instrumental case study with a pragmatic lens (Stake, 1995). 28 interviews were conducted with postdoctoral women in STEM Fields. Two participants identified as Asian, 14 White, 5 Black, and 7 Latinx. Interviews were analyzed through an intersectionality theoretical framework, which considers the multiple identity groups that are sometimes in conflict with each other that women experience (Crenshaw, 1989). Interviews were analyzed using spiral coding where transcript were memoed to look for emergent ideas that were then coded into themes (Cresswell & Poth, 2018). Three themes emerged from the data: (1) women desire a healthy work-life balance; (2) there is conflict between postdoctoral womens’ professional and personal goals; and (3) institutions lack systems of support for expecting mothers. These findings illustrate a systemic conflict women in STEM face as they feel they must sacrifice career or personal goals, and are discriminated against by institutions lack of support. The preferred presentation method is lecture. References Crenshaw, K., (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1, 139-167. http://chicagobound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8 Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N., (2018). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Sage. Lee, J., Williams, J. C., & Li, S., (2017). Parents in the pipeline: Retaining postdoctoral researchers with families. The Center for WorkLife Law. https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=wll NPA Advance, (2011). Postdoctoral scholars, gender, and the academic career pipeline: A fact sheet. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.nationalpostdoc.org/resource/resmgr/Docs/postdoc-gender-fact-sheet-20.pdf Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Sage. Williams, W. M., & Ceci, S. J., (2012). When scientist choose motherhood: A single factor goes a long way in explaining the dearth of women in math-intensive fields. How can we address it? American Science, 100(2), 138-145. https://doi.com/10.1511/2012.95.138
Funder Acknowledgement(s): "This research study is sponsored by a National Science Foundation INCLUDES Design and Developments Launch Pilot award"
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Sylvia Mendez, smendez@uccs.edu
Role: I designed the research questions and conducted the data analysis. I also co-wrote the manuscript.