Good luck in your study and if you need any further help in your assignments, please let me know.Goodbye.

Running head: WOMEN, SCIENCE, AND ENGINEERING

Women, science, and engineering
Name
Institutional Affiliation

1

WOMEN, SCIENCE, AND ENGINEERING

2

Women, science, and engineering

Many cultures across different parts of the world have discriminated women not only in
the fields of science and engineering but also in the other areas of profession. Women have been
discriminated from education and the white color jobs both by the legal policies and by the
cultural norms, but there have been tremendous efforts over the past 50 years in the facilitation
of the women empowerment across different professional lines, Science and Engineering being
among these fields (Ceci, 2011). The aim of this paper will be the discussion of the reasons why
there are so few women in science and engineering. Various topics will be discussed in an
attempt to answer this question and recommendations will be provided to rectify the matter.

Just as it has been the trend, women have the risk of lagging behind in the field of
engineering and science. There is a wide gap in these areas between the numbers of men and
women because most of the women in many parts of the world tend to have an
overrepresentation in the fields of social sciences as well as humanities and underrepresentation
in both engineering and science.

The number of women in the recent years has been a rising. However, there are still high
levels of underrepresentation of women in these areas of the profession. Some of the factors have
great importance in undermining the roles of women include attitudes, cultures, social norms and
legal aspects among others (Ceci, 2011). Most cases of the females’ achievement are usually
measured by the use of the standards that are male oriented; thus, prove of unfair treatment to the
female gender. Furthermore, the few cases of the women who excel in these lines of the
profession do not receive salaries and compensations that are equal to the compensation values
given to their male counterparts in the same field of profession. However, many

WOMEN, SCIENCE, AND ENGINEERING

3

recommendations can apply to different countries in the facilitation of domination of the women
in these important fields of science and engineering to facilitate the acceleration of the
advancement of the women in technology in the contemporary society.

The most significant factors that impend the advantage of the women in the maledominated professions of science and engineering are culture and social norms. The social
practices have values, traditions, and styles that are suitable for the male gender that is
facilitating them in shaping the fields of science and technology and locks out opportunities of
women.

In general, there is no suitability of the women in the society for both the social and the
learning environment as well. It has been the trend across different cultures that has regarded and
placed women as caretakers where females have been mandated the role of looking after their
families. As a result, this norm has resulted in a stereotypic view on women where most of the
men in these fields regard the women abilities as negative.

The response of most people regarding the excellence of the women in these technical
areas has been negative because of the dictation of the social norms that it is not possible for
women to excel in these career paths and succeed in their social lives as mothers and wives. The
International Labor Organization cites that science and engineering have an association with the
gender roles that are pervasive in the encouragement of women to participate in the ‘soft’
subjects (Hill, 2013). As a result, the excellence of men is undermined in the field as mentioned
earlier of the profession.

WOMEN, SCIENCE, AND ENGINEERING

4

Besides, there is believe that women who take the careers as noted earlier lose their
femininity in their societies of origin. As a result, they are likely to lag behind and fail to develop
in their career because they may have the feeling that their creative and intuitive styles do not fit
the field of science. More so, stereotyping of the female gender line is another element among
the social norms that impedes the female accomplishment science and engineering careers.

In most cases, the women scientists and engineers are usually featured as atypical women
and atypical researchers. As a result, there is the implication of a direct attack both to their
‘deficiency’ in science and engineering careers, and to their identity as women. There is more
association of the female norms to collaboration than is the case for competition. However, there
is greater competition than collaboration to the societal norms that are set by men in the society.
On the other hand, the orientation of the women is the win-win criteria setting. The desire of the
women to succeed and advance in these career fields is usually impeded by the desire to prove
oneself and the competitiveness amongst themselves.

More so, a significant effect results from the legal systems that deter the women from
excelling in the fields of technology and science fields. There are countries with anti-differential
laws requiring universities to offer differential entry conditions for the women. Moreover, there
is the weak legal system in several other nations especially the developing ones that are leaving
women at a disadvantaged position when it comes to their inclusion in the programs of
engineering and science. The legal trends are to blame because they encourage the institutions in
the alleviation of the discrimination and other norms of the organization as well as practices,
barring the women from free engagement in science, end-engineering courses. However, the

WOMEN, SCIENCE, AND ENGINEERING

5

high levels of the female stereotyping across different societies continue to lag female behind in
advancing in these lines of careers (Lane, 2009).

Although there is few number of women in the fields of science and engineering, the
women dominate other fields in sizeable numbers. For instance, one professional line where
most of the women are found is nursing. Nursing is a science profession that has a high attraction
to the female students in general. More so, there have been stereotyping of this field, and it has a
greater association with women than men.

One of the major reasons that result to the high number of the female nurses in the
nursing profession believes that man will look unmanly upon choosing to pursue this career. As
such, many men do not join the career and leave; several chances are left open for the women to
pursue the job. More so, there is the argument in the society that women are usually good in
interacting with people than their male counterpart, making them suitable for the career than the
latter. As such, it is believed that women can interact with patients more effectively in the
hospitals than men. Furthermore, nursing profession combines both the professional values and
feminine values of care and support in application to the patients. Besides, women are in a better
position of taking the nursing courses because men are usually excluded in most cases upon
application to pursue the career.

There is a low academic achievement of the women in science and engineering lines of
life. However, this comes with reasons associated to the factors surrounding their academics
lives as governed by the society, culture or government regulations on education and
enforcements. Firstly, women are usually subjected to a lot of violence in the society (Dix,
2010). Violence against the women is a manifesta...