Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Discrimination in STEM - women - New Scientist survey

8 replies

ArabellaScott · 09/05/2021 17:11

'women reported more discrimination than men in all regions ... 43 per cent of overall respondents said they had been targeted based on their gender, with gender inequality already being a well-established problem in STEM. For women, this frequently entailed experiences of sexism and misogyny, particularly by their male colleagues, as well as biases about their ability to work effectively if they were pregnant or had children or not.

...

Of those who were willing to elaborate on their experiences, one female respondent said: “I face sexist comments frequently and also inappropriate comments about how I look or my body.” Another said they were “constantly fighting and losing against the ‘old boys club’.”

Career opportunities also seemed to be lacking for some women. For example, one commented: “I feel I have been offered less progression after three years than my peer, who just started and is male, after 6 months. He is included in wider company emails, events and meetings that I am not – even though it is integral to my role to be so.”

The gender pay gap remains an issue, too, despite increased efforts to narrow the divide. In the UK, the survey puts it at around 19 per cent – men in STEM earned roughly £3500 more than the UK average STEM salary of £43,424, while women earned £4000 less than it.'

www.newscientist.com/article/mg25033331-400-discrimination-is-still-a-problem-in-stem/

OP posts:
ArabellaScott · 09/05/2021 17:12

Survey also included age, ethnicity, disability, sexuality and 'other'.

OP posts:
JaninaDuszejko · 09/05/2021 19:28

Academia really stands out there doesn't it. I experienced the worst sexism of my career while a PhD student (actual sexual harassment, not that any of us dared complain about it back in the 90s) and postdoc. Soon as I moved to the pharma industry things got better (although 20 years ago there were no senior women, very different now though). DH works in software engineering and is doing his bit to recruit women and stamp out sexism but his work is still very masculine.

BlackeyedSusan · 09/05/2021 19:38

That's good Janina. DD might try for this career.

BlackeyedSusan · 09/05/2021 19:38

About dh trying to recruit...

EversoDelighted · 09/05/2021 19:46

I took a STEM degree in the late 80s. I was talking to a man yesterday who took a similar degree in a different uni at around the same time. He was saying that one of his lecturers had been a bit of an arse. I responded by saying that the main problem on my course had been the lecturer that constantly tried to grope the female students in lab sessions. He just shrugged and said "I don't remember anything like that happening" and I thought, no, you wouldn't would you. Things haven't been too bad in my employment years, but it's possible that that lecturer prevented women finishing their degrees, put them off working in STEM and perhaps worse (I gather his actions did catch up with him in the end).

MrsTroutfire · 10/05/2021 00:37

This is a bit disappointing. I remember reading a few years back that women were actually doing pretty well in STEM and had better job prospects than men.

MrsTroutfire · 10/05/2021 00:39

Ah, seems it was in the US...

Study finds, surprisingly, that women are favored for jobs in STEM

www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/14/study-finds-surprisingly-that-women-are-favored-for-jobs-in-stem/%3foutputType=amp

NiceGerbil · 10/05/2021 00:45

No shit Sherlock.

It's not a gender thing though is it, in the way it's used mainly now.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread