Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Scientific and Medical Careers: Gender and Diversity

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Handbook of the Sociology of Gender

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Women students and employees are underrepresented in scientific contexts. Similarly, though the number of women medical students is quickly reaching parity with men, women are still underrepresented in the most lucrative medical specialties and at the top of medical hierarchies. Women’s experiences in both of these contexts are very similar, yet scholars rarely explore or describe this similarity. In this chapter, we begin to fill this gap by examining the role of the “leaky pipeline”, tokenism, the “chilly climate,” and career/family concerns for women in both science and medicine.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For an excellent review of these myriad explanations, see Blickenstaff (2005).

  2. 2.

    When possible, we include scholarship that specifically focuses on the challenges that women of color in STEM and medicine face. However, these studies are fairly rare (please see Ong (2005) for a wonderful exception).

  3. 3.

    Interestingly, though the number of women medical school applicants and matriculants has increased significantly since the 1970s, in recent years there has been a small decline (Roskovensky, Grbic, & Matthew, 2012).

  4. 4.

    In this case, critical mass represents the number of women that is theoretically large enough to shift the departmental climate.

  5. 5.

    Notably, Budig (2002) found that men not only do not suffer (regarding pay) due to their token status, but that token or not, men are “uniformly advantaged” in terms of pay.

References

  • Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acker, J. (2006). Inequality regimes: Gender, class, and race in organizations. Gender & Society, 20(4), 441–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ash, A. S., Carr, P. L., Goldstein, R., & Friedman, R. H. (2004). Academia and clinic compensation and advancement of women in academic medicine: Is there equity? Annals of Internal Medicine, 141, 205–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • August, L., & Waltman, J. (2004). Culture, climate, and contribution: Career satisfaction among female faculty. Research in Higher Education, 45(2), 177–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Babaria, P., Abedin, S., Berg, D., & Nunez-Smith, M. (2012). ‘I’m too used to it: A longitudinal qualitative study of third year female medical students’ experiences of gendered encounters in medical education. Social Science and Medicine, 74(7), 1013–1020.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basow, S. A., Phelan, J. E., & Capotosto, L. (2006). Gender patterns in college students’ choices of their best and worst professors. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30(1), 25–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beagan, B. (2001). Micro inequities and everyday inequalities: ‘Race’, gender, sexuality and class in medical school. The Canadian Journal of Sociology/ Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, 26(4), 583–610.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beede, D., Julian, T., & Langdon, D. (2011). Women in STEM: A gender gap to innovation. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellas, M. L., & Toutkoushian, R. K. (1999). Faculty time allocations and research productivity: Gender, race, and family effects. Review of Higher Education, 22(4), 367–390.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benschop, Y., & Brouns, M. (2003). Crumbling ivory towers: Academic organizing and its gender effects. Gender, Work & Organization, 10(2), 194–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blackwell, J. E. (1988). Faculty issues: The impact on minorities. Review of Higher Education, 11(4), 417–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blickenstaff, J. C. (2005). Women and science careers: Leaky pipeline or gender filter? Gender and Education, 17(4), 369–386. 

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boulis, A. K., & Jacobs, J. A. (2008). The changing face of medicine: Women doctors and the evolution of health care in America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, K. (2000). The incorporation of women into higher education: Paradoxical outcomes? Sociology of Education, 73(1), 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Budig, M. J. (2002). Male advantage and the gender composition of jobs: Who rides the glass escalator? Social Problems, 49(2), 258–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Budig, M. J., & Hodges, M. J. (2010). Differences in disadvantage: Variation in the motherhood penalty across White Women’s earnings distribution. American Sociological Review, 75(5), 705–728.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canes, B. J., & Rosen, H. S. (1995). Following in her footsteps? Faculty gender composition and women’s choices of college majors. ILR Review, 48(3), 486–504.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carnes, M., Morrissey, C., & Geller, S. E. (2008). Women’s health and women’s leadership in academic medicine: Hitting the same glass ceiling? Journal of women’s health (2002), 17(9), 1453–1462.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carr, P. L., Szalacha, L., Barnett, R., Caswell, C., & Inui, T. (2003). A ‘Ton of Feathers’: Gender discrimination in academic medical careers and how to manage it. Journal of Women’s Health, 12(10), 1009–1018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carr, P. L., Ash, A. S., Friedman, R. H., Szalacha, L., Barnett, R. C., Palepu, A., et al. (2000). Faculty perceptions of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in academic medicine. Annals of Internal Medicine, 132, 889–896.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cassell, J. (1997). Doing gender doing surgery: Women surgeons in a man’s profession. Human Organization, 56, 47–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Catsambis, S. (1994). The path to math: Gender and racial-ethnic differences in mathematics participation from middle school to high school. Sociology of Education, 67(3), 199–215. 

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cech, E. A., & Blair-Loy, M. (2014). Consequences of flexibility stigma among academic scientists and engineers. Work and Occupations, 41(1), 86–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cech, E., Rubineau, B., Silbey, S., & Seron, C. (2011). Professional role confidence and gendered persistence in engineering. American Sociological Review, 76(5), 641–666.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Committee on Maximizing the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering. (2007). Beyond bias and barriers: Fulfilling the potential of women in academic science and engineering. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conefrey, T. (1997). Gender, culture and authority in a university life sciences laboratory. Discourse & Society, 8(3), 313–340. 

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Correll, S. J. (2001). Gender and the career choice process: The role of biased self-assessments. American Journal of Sociology, 106(6), 1691–1730.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craig, L. (2007). Is there really a second shift, and if so, who does it? A time-diary investigation. Feminist Review, 86(1), 149–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damaske, S., Ecklund, E. H., Lincoln, A. E., & White, V. J. (2014). Male scientists’ competing devotions to work and family: Changing norms in a male-dominated profession. Work & Occupations, 41(4), 477–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, S., & Guppy, N. (1997). Fields of study, college selectivity, and student inequalities in higher education. Social Forces, 75(4), 1417–1438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dodson, T. F., & Webb, A. L. B. (2005). Why do residents leave general surgery? The hidden problem in today’s programs. Current Surgery, 62(1), 128–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eccles, J. S., & Jacobs, J. E. (1986). Social forces shape math attitudes and performance. Signs, 11(2), 367–380.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ecklund, E. H., Lincoln, A. E., & Tansey, C. (2012). Gender segregation in Elite academic science. Gender & Society, 26(5), 693–717.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • England, P., Bearak, J., Budig, M. J., & Hodges, M. J. (2016). Do highly paid, highly skilled women experience the largest motherhood penalty? American Sociological Review, 81(6), 1161–1189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etzkowitz, H., Kemelgor, C., Neuschatz, M., Uzzi, B., & Alonzo, J. (1994). The paradox of critical mass for women in science. Science, 266(5182), 5154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etzkowitz, H., Kemelgor, C., & Uzzi, B. (2000). Athena unbound: The advancement of women in science and technology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ferreira, M. (2003). Gender issues related to graduate student attrition in two science departments. International Journal of Science Education, 25(8), 969–989.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Filardo, G., da Graca, B., Sass, D. M., Pollock, B. D., Smith, E. B., Martinez, M. A. M., et al. (2016). Trends and comparison of female first authorship in high impact medical journals: Observational study (1994–2014). British Medical Journal, 352, i847.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford, K. A. (2011). Race, gender, and bodily (mis)recognitions: Women of color faculty experiences with white students in the college classroom. The Journal of Higher Education, 82(4), 444–478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, M. F. (2001). Women, science, and academia: Graduate education and careers. Gender & Society, 15(5), 654–666.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, M. F. (2006). Gender, knowledge, and scientific styles. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 869(1), 89–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frome, P. M., Alfeld, C. J., Eccles, J. S., & Barber, B. L. (2006). Why don’t they want a male-dominated job? An investigation of young women who changed their occupational aspirations. Educational Research and Evaluation, 12(4), 359–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ginorio, A. B. (1995). Warming the climate for women in academic science. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gjerberg, E. (2002). Gender similarities in doctors’ preferences—And gender differences in final specialisation. Social Science and Medicine, 54(4), 591–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gjerberg, E. (2003). Women doctors in Norway: The challenging balance between career and family life. Social Science and Medicine, 57(7), 1327–1341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gjerberg, E., & Kjølsrød, L. (2001). The doctor-nurse relationship: How easy is it to be a female doctor co-operating with a female nurse? Social Science and Medicine, 52(2), 189–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hackett, G., Esposito, D., & Sean O’Halloran, M. (1989). The relationship of role model influences to the career salience and educational and career plans of college women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 35(2), 164–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, R. M., & Sandler, B. R. (1982). The classroom climate: A chilly one for women? Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hargens, L. L., & Long, J. S. (2002). Demographic inertia and women’s representation among faculty in higher education. The Journal of Higher Education, 73(4), 494–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harlow, R. (2003). ‘Race doesn’t matter, but …’: The effect of race on professors â€TM experiences and emotion management in the undergraduate college classroom. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66(4), 348–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harvey Wingfield, A. (2009). Racializing the glass escalator: Reconsidering men’s experiences with women’s work. Gender & Society, 23(1), 5–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heiligers, P. J. M., & Hingstman, L. (2000). Career preferences and the work-family balance in medicine: Gender differences among medical specialists. Social Science and Medicine, 50(9), 1235–1246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herzig, A. H. (2004a). Becoming mathematicians: Women and students of color choosing and leaving doctoral mathematics. Review of Educational Research, 74(2), 171–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herzig, A. H. (2004b). ‘Slaughtering this beautiful math’: Graduate women choosing and leaving mathematics. Gender and Education, 16(3), 379–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hinze, S. W. (1999). Gender and the body of medicine or at least some body parts: (Re)constructing the prestige hierarchy of medical specialties. Sociological Quarterly, 40(2), 217–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirshfield, L. E. (2010). ‘She won’t make me feel dumb’: Identity threat in a male-dominated discipline. International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, 2–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirshfield, L. E. (2014a). Not the ideal professor: Gender in the academy. In A. Stepnick & K. DeWelde (Eds.), Disrupting the culture of silence: Women navigating hostility and making change in the academy (pp. 205–214). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirshfield, L. E. (2014b). ‘She’s not good with crying’: The effect of gender expectations on graduate students’ assessments of their principal investigators. Gender and Education, 26(6), 601–617.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirshfield, L. E. (2015). ‘I just did everything physically possible to get in there’: How men and women chemists enact masculinity differently. Social Currents, 2(4), 324–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirshfield, L. (2016). Who’s the expert? Gendered conceptions and expressions of expertise by chemists-in-training. In E. H. Branch (Ed.), Pathways, potholes, and the persistence of women in science (pp. 112–130). Lanham MD: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirshfield, L. E. (2017). ‘I Don’t Know Everything, But Ethan Would Know’: Interactional Style, Expertise, and the Cultural Mismatch for Women Scientists. NASPA Journal about Women in Higher Education, 10(1), 118–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirshfield, L. E., & Joseph, T. D. (2012). ‘We need a woman, we need a black woman’: Gender, race, and identity taxation in the academy. Gender and Education, 24(2), 213–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirt, J. B., & Muffo, J. A. (1998). Graduate students: Institutional climates and disciplinary cultures. New Directions for Institutional Research, (98), 17–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, A. (1989). The second shift: Working parents and the revolution at home. Penguin (Non-Classics).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. J. (1990). Gender differences in mathematics performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 107(2), 139–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jagsi, R., Guancial, E. A., Worobey, C. C., Henault, L. E., Chang, Y., Starr, R., et al. (2006). The ‘gender Gap’ in authorship of academic medical literature–a 35-year perspective. The New England journal of medicine, 355(3), 281–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jena, A. B., Khullar, D., Ho, O., Olenski, A. R., & Blumenthal, D. M. (2015). Sex differences in academic rank in US medical schools in 2014. JAMA, 314(11), 1149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnsrud, L. K. (1995). Women in graduate education: Reviewing the past, looking to the future. New Directions for Student Services, 72, 69–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnsrud, L. K. (2002). Measuring the quality of faculty and administrative worklife: Implications for college and university campuses. Research in Higher Education, 43(3), 379–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, J. R., García-Manglano, J., & Bianchi, S. M. (2014). The motherhood penalty at midlife: Long-term effects of children on women’s careers. Journal of Marriage and Family, 76(1), 56–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanter, R. M. (1977). Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, S. H., Sullivan, L. M., Dukes, K. A., Phillips, C. F., Kelch, R. P., & Schaller, J. G. (1996). Sex differences in academic achievement: Results of a national study of pediatricians. New England Journal of Medicine, 335(17), 1282–1289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, M. M., Bergstrom, C. T., Correll, S. J., Jacquet, J., & West, J. D. (2017). Men Set Their Own Cites High: Gender and Self-citation across Fields and over Time. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 3, 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krefting, L. A. (2003). Intertwined discourses of merit and gender: Evidence from academic employment in the USA. Gender, Work and Organization, 10(2), 260–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ku, M. C. (2011). When does gender matter?: Gender differences in specialty choice among physicians. Work and Occupations, 38(2), 221–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuck, V. J., Marzabadi, C. H., Buckner, J. P., & Nolan, S. A. (2007). A review and study on graduate training and academic hiring of chemists. Journal of Chemical Education, 84(2), 277–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lautenberger, D. M., Dandar, V. M., Raezer, C. L., & Sloane, R. A. (2013). The state of women in academic medicine: The pipeline and pathway to leadership 2013–2014. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, A. E., Pincus, S., Koster, J. B., & Leboy, P. S. (2012). The Matilda effect in science: Awards and prizes in the US, 1990s and 2000s. Social Studies of Science, 42(2), 307–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lips, H., & Lawson, K. (2009). Work values, gender, and expectations about work commitment and pay: Laying the groundwork for the ‘motherhood penalty’? Sex Roles, 61(9–10), 667–676.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Major, B., & O’Brien, L. T. (2005). The social psychology of stigma. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 393–421.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marschke, R., Laursen, S., Nielsen, J. M. C., & Rankin, P. (2007). Demographic inertia revisited: An immodest proposal to achieve equitable gender representation among faculty in higher education. The Journal of Higher Education, 78(1), 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, J. (1994). The organization of exclusion: Institutionalization of sex inequality, gendered faculty jobs and gendered knowledge in organizational theory and research. Organization, 1(2), 401–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, S. C., Arnold, R. M., & Parker, R. M. (1988). Gender and medical socialization. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 29(4), 333–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mastekaasa, A., & Smeby, J. C. (2006). Educational choice and persistence in male-and female-dominated fields. Higher Education.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McOwen, K. S., Bellini, L. S., Guerra, C. E., & Shea, J. A. (2007). Evaluation of clinical faculty: Gender and minority implications. Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 82(10 Suppl), S94–S96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merchant, J. L., & Bishr Omary, M. (2010). Underrepresentation of underrepresented minorities in academic medicine: The need to enhance the pipeline and the pipe. Gastroenterology, 138, 19–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milkie, M. A., Raley, S. B., & Bianchi, S. M. (2007). Taking on the second shift: Time allocations and time pressures of U. S. parents with preschoolers. Social Forces, 88(2), 487–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Misra, J., Lundquist, J., Holmes, E. D., & Agiomavritis, S. (2011). The ivory ceiling of service work. Academe—Bulletin of the AAUP, 97(1), 22–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Partnership for Women & Families. (2016). America’s women and the wage gap what does the wage gap mean. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nettles, M. T., Perna, L. W., Bradburn, E. M., & Zimbler, L. (2000). Salary, promotion, and tenure status of minority and women faculty in U.S. colleges and universities. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niemann, Y. F. (1999). The making of a token: A case study of stereotype threat, stigma, racism, and tokenism in academe. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 20(1), 111–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nonnemaker, L. (2000). Women physicians in academic medicine: New insights from cohort studies. New England Journal of Medicine, 342(6), 399–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ong, M. (2005). Body projects of young women of color in physics: Intersections of gender, race, and science. Social Problems, 52(4), 593–617.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rask, K. N., & Bailey, E. M. (2002). Are faculty role models? Evidence from major choice in an undergraduate institution. The Journal of Economic Education, 33(2), 99–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhoton, L. A. (2011). Distancing as a gendered barrier: Understanding women scientists’ gender practices. Gender & Society, 25(6), 696–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riska, E. (2001). Towards gender balance: But will women physicians have an impact on medicine? Social Science and Medicine, 52(2), 179–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robst, J., Keil, J., & Russo, D. (1998). The effect of gender composition of faculty on student retention. Economics of Education Review, 17(4), 429–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, S. J., & Menaghan, E. G. (1991). Women’s persistence in undergraduate majors: The effects of gender-disproportionate representation. Gender & Society, 5(4), 549–564.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roskovensky, L. B., Grbic, D., & Matthew, D. (2012). The changing gender composition of US medical school applicants and matriculants. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossiter, M. W. (1993). The Matthew Matilda effect in science. Social Studies of Science, 23(2), 325–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roth, L. M. (2016). A doctor’s worth bonus criteria and the gender pay gap among american physicians. Social Currents, 3, 3–23. 

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rothstein, D. S. (1995). Do female faculty influence female students’ educational and labor market attainments? ILR Review, 48(3), 515–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sallee, M. W. (2011). Performing masculinity: Considering gender in doctoral student socialization. Journal of Higher Education, 82(2), 187–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Samble, J. N. (2008). Female faculty: Challenges and choices in the United States and beyond. New Directions for Higher Education, (Fall), 55–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sax, L. J. (1994). Mathematical self-concept: How college reinforces the gender gap. Research in Higher Education, 35(2), 141–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sax, L. J. (1996). The dynamics of “tokenism”: How college students are affected by the proportion of women in their major. Research in Higher Education, 37(4), 389–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiebinger, L. (1999). Has feminism changed science? Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmader, T., Whitehead, J., & Wysocki, V. H. (2007). A linguistic comparison of letters of recommendation for male and female chemistry and biochemistry job applicants. Sex roles, 57(7–8), 509–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, B. E. (1987). Graduate women, sexual harassment, and university policy. The Journal of Higher Education, 58(1), 46–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sidhu, R., Rajashekhar, P., Lavin, V. L., Parry, J., Attwood, J., Holdcroft, A., & Sanders, D. S. (2009). The gender imbalance in academic medicine: A study of female authorship in the United Kingdom. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 102(8), 337–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J. W., & Calasanti, T. (2005). The influences of gender, race and ethnicity on workplace experiences of institutional and social isolation: An exploratory study of university faculty. Sociological Spectrum, 25(3), 307–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith-Doerr, L., Sacco, T., & Stoutenburgh, A. (2016). Crisis of confidence: Young women doing gender and science. In E. H. Branch (Ed.), Pathways, potholes, and the persistence of women in science (pp. 95–111). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sonnert, G., & Holton, G. J. (1995). Who succeeds in science? The gender dimension. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steinpreis, R. E., Anders, K. A., & Ritzke, D. (1999). The impact of gender on the review of the curricula vitae of job applicants and tenure candidates: A national empirical study. Sex Roles, 41(7/8), 509–528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Traweek, S. (1992). Beamtimes and lifetimes: The world of high energy physicists. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trix, F., & Psenka, C. (2003). Exploring the color of glass: Letters of recommendation for female and male medical faculty. Discourse & Society, 14(2), 191–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uhlenberg, P., & Cooney, T. M. (1990). Male and female physicians: Family and career comparisons. Social Science and Medicine, 30(3), 373–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Usdansky, M. L., & Gordon, R. A. (2016). Is college enough? Gender disparities in the use of science and engineering degrees in the workforce. In E. H. Branch (Ed.), Pathways, potholes, and the persistence of women in science (pp. 21–40). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valian, V. (1998). Why so slow? The advancement of women. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Anders, S. M. (2004). Why the academic pipeline leaks: Fewer men than women perceive barriers to becoming professors. Sex Roles, 51(9–10), 511–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, J. E. (2014). Gender and supportive co-worker relations in the medical profession. Gender, Work and Organization, 21(1), 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ware, N. C., Steckler, N. A., & Leserman, J. (1985). Undergraduate women: Who chooses a science major ? The Journal of Higher Education, 56(1), 73–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinberger, C. J. (1998). Race and gender wage gaps in the market for recent college graduates. Industrial Relations, 37(1), 67–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenneras, C., & Wold, A. (1997). Nepotism and sexism in peer-review. Nature, 387, 341–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West, C. (1993). Reconceptualizing gender in physician-patient relationships. Social Science and Medicine, 36(1), 57–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West, J. D., Jacquet, J., King, M. M., Correll, S. J., & Bergstrom, C. T. (2013). The role of gender in scholarly authorship. PloS One, 8(7), e66212. 

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiest, L. R. (1999). Addressing the needs of graduate women. Contemporary Education, 70(2), 30–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, C. L. (1991). Gender differences at work: Women and men in non-traditional occupations. California: University of California Press. 

    Google Scholar 

  • Wingfield, A. H. (2010). Are some emotions marked ‘whites only’? Racialized feeling rules in professional workplaces. Social Problems, 57(2), 251–268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xie, Y., & Shauman, K. A. (1998). Sex differences in research productivity: New evidence about an old puzzle. American Sociological Review, 63(6), 847. 

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xie, Y., & Shauman, K. A. (2003). Women in science: Career processes and outcomes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoder, J. D. (1991). Rethinking Tokenism: Looking beyond numbers. Gender & Society, 5(2), 178–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmer, L. (1988). Tokenism and women in the workplace: The limits of gender-neutral theory. Social Problems, 35(1), 64–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Renad Ramahi and Tiana Stephens for their invaluable research support, as well as the editors of this handbook for their helpful feedback.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Chicago, 808 S. Wood St. CME 968, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Laura E. Hirshfield

  2. University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 West Harrison Street, MC 312, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA

    Emilie Glass

Authors
  1. Laura E. Hirshfield
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Emilie Glass
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laura E. Hirshfield .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Barbara J. Risman

  2. University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA

    Carissa M. Froyum

  3. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    William J. Scarborough

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Hirshfield, L.E., Glass, E. (2018). Scientific and Medical Careers: Gender and Diversity. In: Risman, B., Froyum, C., Scarborough, W. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Gender. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76333-0_35

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76333-0_35

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76332-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76333-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation