Why Aren't More Women in Science?: Top Researchers Debate the Evidence
For individuals in the U.S. & U.S. territories
Why aren't more women pursuing careers in science, engineering, and math? Is the lack of women in these fields a consequence of societal discouragements, innate differences in ability between the sexes, or differences in aspirations? These questions always spark a host of other questions—and a multiplicity of answers—all of which have important implications for gender equality and for retaining the nation's competitiveness in the technological marketplace.
The most reliable and current knowledge about women's participation in science is presented in this collection of fifteen essays written by top researchers on gender differences in ability. The essayists were chosen to reflect the diversity and complexity of views on the topic, about which knowledge has been accumulating and evolving for decades. The editors provide an introduction that defines the key issues and embeds them in historical context and a conclusion that synthesizes and integrates the disparate views.
Written accessibly to appeal to students and non-specialists as well as psychologists and other social scientists, the contributors reframe this key controversy and challenge readers' emotional and political biases through solid empirical science.
Taken together, the introduction, essays, and conclusion make a convincing case that sex differences are neither as unambiguous as earlier researchers suggested nor as insubstantial as some current critics claim. Sex differences in career choices are definitely not inevitable, as the past thirty years have documented both a sea change in the gender makeup of various fields and fluctuations in ability-score differences between the sexes. However, as the essays make clear, such changes leave open the possibility of cultural and biological bases for today's sex differences in science, engineering, and math participation.
Contributors
I. Setting the Stage
Introduction: Striving for Perspective in the Debate on Women in Science
—Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci
II. Essays
- Women at the Top in Science—and Elsewhere
—Virginia Valian - "Underrepresentation" or Misrepresentation?
—Doreen Kimura - Is Math a Gift? Beliefs That Put Females at Risk
—Carol S. Dweck - Sex, Math, and Science
—Elizabeth S. Spelke and Ariel D. Grace - Taking Science Seriously: Straight Thinking About Spatial Sex Differences
—Nora S. Newcombe - Sex Differences in Personal Attributes for the Development of Scientific Expertise
—David S. Lubinski and Camilla Persson Benbow - Do Sex Differences in Cognition Cause the Shortage of Women in Science?
—Melissa Hines - Brains, Bias, and Biology: Follow the Data
—Richard J. Haier - Science, Sex, and Good Sense: Why Women Are Underrepresented in Some Areas of Science and Math
—Diane F. Halpern - Women in Science: Gender Similarities in Abilities and Sociocultural Forces
—Janet Shibley Hyde - The Seeds of Career Choices: Prenatal Sex Hormone Effects on Psychological Sex Differences
—Sheri A. Berenbaum and Susan Resnick - Sex Differences in Mind: Keeping Science Distinct From Social Policy
—Simon Baron-Cohen - An Evolutionary Perspective on Sex Differences in Mathematics and the Sciences
—David C. Geary - Neural Substrates for Sex Differences in Cognition
—Ruben C. Gur and Raquel E. Gur - Where Are All the Women? Gender Differences in Participation in Physical Science and Engineering
—Jacquelyn S. Eccles
III. Conclusion
Are We Moving Closer and Closer Apart? Shared Evidence Leads to Conflicting Views
—Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams
Questions for Discussion and Reflection
Author Index
Subject Index
About the Editors
Publishers Book Award Bronze Medalist (IPPY)
Why Aren't More Women in Science raises important questions. The volume will stimulate all readers to think more deeply about their own beliefs, commitments, and activities as they consider participation in science and how we can ensure that all individuals have the opportunities they deserve.
—Science
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