Whose STEM? Disrupting the Gender Crisis Within STEM

Bibliographic Data

ID8923722
AuthorsJessica A Heybach (0000-0003-1216-8137, Aurora University, corresponding author), Jessica Heybach (Aurora University), Austin Pickup (0000-0002-8082-2105, Aurora University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume53
Issue6
Pages614-627
Publication date2017-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducational Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-1946 • E-ISSN: 1532-6993
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00131946.2017.1369085
OpenAlexW2760899767
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited38

This article challenges implicit understandings of scientific inquiry and gender within contemporary responses to the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Failing to recognize the gendered history of science, and thus STEM disciplines, we argue that much research and curricular interventions are overly invested in simply providing women institutional access to or creating feminized environments within STEM. Such shortsighted analyses lead to processes we term gender washing and painting pink, both of which diminish the possibilities for meaningful engagement with gendered ontologies within scientific inquiry. Working from important and diverse strands of feminist theory, we suggest that serious considerations of women and STEM must include a framework that critically engages the entanglement of gender and science. We conclude that a focused and intentional analysis of gender and scientific inquiry, that opposes constructions of STEM as fixed entities to simply be imparted or made accessible to women, has important implications for understanding science as a (post) human endeavor

Epistemology · Feminism · Gender gap · Pedagogy · Science education · Sociology · Women in science · Career Development and Diversity · Gender Studies · Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration · Science Education and Perceptions

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