Inhalt: In numerous fields of science, work, and everyday life, humans and machines have been increasingly entangled, developing an ever-growing toolbox of interactions. These entanglements affect our daily lives and pose possibilities as well as restrictions, chances as well as challenges. The contributions of this volume tackle related issues by adopting a highly interdisciplinary perspective. How do digitalization and artificial intelligence affect gender relations? How can intersectionality be newly understood in an increasingly internationally networked world?
This volume is a collection of contributions deriving from the “Interdisciplinary Conference on the Relations of Humans, Machines and Gender” which took place in Braunschweig (October 16–19, 2019). It also includes the keynotes given by Cecile Crutzen, Galit Wellner and Helen Verran.
The necessity of inter- and transdisciplinary reflection processes, especially between the social sciences and humanities on the one hand and the technical and natural sciences on the other hand, results from complex man-machine configurations: Machines open up new possibilities for mobility and communication, relieve us of tedious tasks, allow us to share information or overcome physical limitations. At the same time, technical products influence the way we think, act and feel, i.e. our forms of subjectification. Machines are thus not only configured by humans, but they represent an essential part of the (re)configuration of the human. How do relationships between humans and machines reproduce gender relations and are these relationships gendered? Which fields of action arise from the perspective of gender studies, queer and postcolonial studies?
CEWS Kategorie:Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Dokumenttyp:Sammelwerk
Das Gehirn hat kein Geschlecht : Wie die Neurowissenschaft die Genderdebatte revolutioniert
Autor/in:
Joel, Daphna; Vikhanski, Luba
Quelle: dtv, 2021.
Inhalt: "Noch immer hält sich der Mythos, Frauen und Männer würden sich in Eigenschaften und Verhaltensweisen grundlegend unterscheiden. Auch die Wissenschaft versuchte lange zu beweisen, dass männliche und weibliche Gehirne von Natur aus unterschiedlich ticken.
Die israelische Neurowissenschaftlerin Daphna Joel widerlegt diese Theorie. Anhand neuester Studien und ihrer eigenen bahnbrechenden Forschung belegt sie, dass jedes Gehirn ein einzigartiges Mosaik ist, das sowohl »männliche« als auch »weibliche« Merkmale in sich vereint. Und sie erklärt, warum wir alle verlieren, wenn wir an Geschlechterstereotypen festhalten.
Ein faszinierender Blick auf unser Gehirn und ein starkes Plädoyer für die Abkehr von einem System, das Menschen aufgrund ihres Geschlechts in zwei Kategorien einteilt."
Inhalt: "Understanding and appreciation between genders continues to be a work in progress. As people seek ways to make room for alternative perspectives, research-based solutions have become especially helpful. In this volume, seasoned professors tackle gender bias in the classroom by defining challenges specific to the sciences and discussing ways to dismantle and confront biases. With solutions backed by research, this work will be useful for those working in all science and technology fields."
Schlagwörter:classroom; gender bias; MINT; STEM
CEWS Kategorie:Naturwissenschaft und Technik
Dokumenttyp:Monographie
Who do we invent for? Patents by women focus more on women's health, but few women get to invent
Quelle: Science (New York, N.Y.), 372 (2021) 6548, S 1345–1348
Inhalt: Women engage in less commercial patenting and invention than do men, which may affect what is invented. Using text analysis of all U.S. biomedical patents filed from 1976 through 2010, we found that patents with all-female inventor teams are 35% more likely than all-male teams to focus on women's health. This effect holds over decades and across research areas. We also found that female researchers are more likely to discover female-focused ideas. These findings suggest that the inventor gender gap is partially responsible for thousands of missing female-focused inventions since 1976. More generally, our findings suggest that who benefits from innovation depends on who gets to invent.
Die Professoren Rembrand Koning von der Harvard Business School, Sampsa Samila von der IESE Business School und John-Paul Ferguson von der McGill University analysierten mehr als 430.000 biomedizinische US-Patente, angemeldet zwischen 1976 und 2010. Patente mit ausschließlich weiblichen Erfinderteams drehen sich mit 35% höherer Wahrscheinlichkeit um die Gesundheit von Frauen als die Ergebnisse rein männlicher Teams. Im Jahr 1976 stammten nur 6 Prozent der biomedizinischen Patente von Teams, die von Frauen geleitet wurden, 2010 waren es bereits 16%. Dieser Anstieg um 10 Prozentpunkte führte zu deutlich mehr Innovationen im Bereich der Gesundheit von Frauen.
Frauen stellen derzeit etwa 35% der Wissenschaftler in den MINT-Fächern. Laut der Studie gibt es Gründe dafür, dass sie bei Patentanmeldungen nicht zahlreicher zu finden sind. Noch immer gebe es geschlechtsspezifische Diskriminierung auf dem Arbeitsmarkt und in den Entscheidungsprozessen, welche F&E-Vorhaben Manager als aussichtsreich erachten.
„Ungleichheit auf dem Arbeitsmarkt kann zu Ungleichheit im Produktbereich führen“, erklärt IESE-Prof. Samila. „Diskriminierung auf dem Arbeitsmarkt ist nicht nur ein Problem für den Einzelnen, sondern für die gesamte Gesellschaft, da die Beiträge derjenigen fehlen, die diskriminiert wurden“. Der Abbau von Barrieren für benachteiligte Gruppen fördere daher Innovation und Wirtschaftswachstum. „Es mag noch viele ungenutzte Marktchancen für Erfindungen für Frauen geben, Möglichkeiten, die wiederum die Gesundheit von Frauen verbessern könnten“.
Patente von Frauen drehten sich mit höherer Wahrscheinlichkeit um die Gesundheit von Frauen als diejenigen, die von Männern ersonnen wurden. Fortschritte durch weibliche Erfinder gibt es zuhauf. So hat die Unternehmerin Surbhi Sarna aus ihrer eigenen Angst vor Eierstockkrebs heraus ein besseres Werkzeug zur Krebserkennung erfunden. Dr. Patricia Bath fand eine präzisere Behandlung für den Grauen Star, von dem Frauen häufiger betroffen sind als Männer. Die neue Studie untermauert diese Ergebnisse mit einer systematischen Datenanalyse.
Während schon mehrheitlich weibliche Erfinderteams sich eher dem weiblichen Geschlecht widmen, ist das Muster bei reinen Frauenteams am stärksten ausgeprägt. Der Zusammenhang zwischen weiblichen Erfindern und Erfindungen ist sowohl das Ergebnis auf Frauen fokussierter Forschungsbereiche wie der Gynäkologie als auch der Kunst weiblicher Erfinder in allen Wissenschaftsbereichen, Gelegenheiten für Erfindungen, die Frauen helfen, zu erkennen. (deutsches Abstract: idw)
Gender equality as a resource and a dilemma: interpretative repertoires in engineering education in Sweden
Autor/in:
Silfver, Eva; Gonsalves, Allison J.; Danielsson, Anna T.; Berge, Maria
Quelle: Gender and Education, (2021) , S 1–17
Inhalt: This article explores how female university students’ abilities to present themselves as ‘authentic’ engineers are imbricated with discursive constructions of gender and gender equality. The empirical data comes from interviews and video diaries collected with three female engineering students. The analysis demonstrates the power of the Swedish gender equality discourse to inform the students’ talk as they negotiate their gendered identities to become intelligible as engineering students and engineers. We suggest that gender equality is used as a resource in the repertoires, but we also demonstrate that this discourse becomes a dilemma in that it limits possibilities for gender performances to go beyond old patterns. Despite this, the article still shows three unique ways of negotiating gender and other social categories in different situations connected to university learning and participation in internships.
Schlagwörter:discourse; Diskurs; engineering; Gleichstellungspolitik; Identität; Identitätsbildung; Ingenieurwissenschaft; Schweden; Studentin; Sweden
CEWS Kategorie:Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Studium und Studierende
Quelle: Journal of Further and Higher Education, (2021) , S 1–14
Inhalt: The transition of early career researchers into academic posts is understood to be a crucial career step and marks a point at which representation of women declines significantly. The research adopts a participatory qualitative research methodology through career narrative interviews and group discussions with women engineers recently appointed into academic posts. It was found that academic careers are ‘hoped for’, but not described as a straightforward option in terms of either securing tenure or future career development. The collective career paths outlined were rarely linear and featured key moments of crisis and self-doubt, culminating in ‘tentative’ career identity formation in the face of gendered career structures. There is evidence of a pre-emptive and continuing uncertainty about the feasibility of an academic career that begins years before embarking on a PhD. The distinctive contribution of the study is the consideration of gendered early processes of forming an academic identity and ongoing collective experiences of becoming an academic.
Schlagwörter:akademische Karriere; early career researchers; Gender; Ingenieurwissenschaft; soziale Konstruktion; transition; Übergangsphase; wissenschaftlicher Nachwuchs
CEWS Kategorie:Berufsbiographie und Karriere, Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Inhalt: "This eye-opening book identifies factors that impede the success of women in STEM professions and demonstrates the negative impact of sexual harassment on women’s physical health, mental health, and job performance. Focusing specifically on the narratives of women in higher education, the authors illuminate the structural and systemic barriers facing women working as graduate students, faculty, and administrators. Drawing on insights from the #metoo and #timesup movements as well as the Brett Kavanaugh Senate hearings, this book:
Provides real-life narratives of women from diverse cultural backgrounds and gender identities struggling in unhealthy workplace environments
Validates women working in STEM fields who feel isolated in workplaces of hostility, marginalization, and invalidation
Celebrates the achievements of women who negotiate and achieve success amid workplace hostilities
Recommends specific practices women can engage and employers can apply to ensure women’s safety and career prosperity"
Schlagwörter:#MeToo; academia; MINT; sexual harassment; STEM; woman scientist
CEWS Kategorie:Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
Dokumenttyp:Monographie
Systemic inequalities for LGBTQ professionals in STEM
Autor/in:
Cech, Erin A.; Waidzunas, Tom
Quelle: Science Advances, 7 (2021) 3
Inhalt: Researchers have documented race and gender inequality in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for decades. Do lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) professionals face parallel experiences of disadvantage in STEM? Using representative survey data from 21 STEM professional societies (Nsample = 25,324; NLGBTQ = 1006), this paper presents multidimensional and methodologically robust documentation of 5 dimensions of LGBTQ inequality in STEM. Controlling for variation by demographic, discipline, and job factors, LGBTQ STEM professionals were more likely to experience career limitations, harassment, and professional devaluation than their non-LGBTQ peers. They also reported more frequent health difficulties and were more likely to intend to leave STEM. These trends were similar across STEM disciplines and employment sectors. We found no differences by LGBTQ status in education level, work effort, or job commitment. These findings reveal LGBTQ status as a clear axis of inequality in STEM and motivate further research into the mechanisms producing such outcomes.
Schlagwörter:Diversity; inequality; LGBTQ; STEM
CEWS Kategorie:Diversity, Naturwissenschaft und Technik
The Gender Pay Gap Revisited with Big Data: Do Methodological Choices Matter?
Autor/in:
Strittmatter, Anthony; Wunsch, Conny
Quelle: (IZA Discussion Paper, 14128), 2021.
Inhalt: The vast majority of existing studies that estimate the average unexplained gender pay gap use unnecessarily restrictive linear versions of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. Using a notably rich and large data set of 1.7 million employees in Switzerland, we investigate how the methodological improvements made possible by such big data affect estimates of the unexplained gender pay gap.
We study the sensitivity of the estimates with regard to i) the availability of observationally comparable men and women, ii) model flexibility when controlling for wage determinants, and iii) the choice of different parametric and semiparametric estimators, including variants that make use of machine learning methods.
We find that these three factors matter greatly. Blinder-Oaxaca estimates of the unexplained gender pay gap decline by up to 39% when we enforce comparability between men and women and use a more flexible specification of the wage equation. Semi-parametric matching yields estimates that when compared with the Blinder-Oaxaca estimates, are up to 50% smaller and also less sensitive to the way wage determinants are included.
Schlagwörter:common support; data feminism; gender inequality; gender pay gap; machine learning; matching estimator; model specification
CEWS Kategorie:Arbeitswelt und Arbeitsmarkt, Naturwissenschaft und Technik
The Gender Wage Gap among Ph.D. Holders: Evidence from Italy
Autor/in:
Alfano, Vincenzo; Cicatiello, Lorenzo; Gaeta, Giuseppe Lucio; Pinto, Mauro
Quelle: The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 21 (2021) 3, S 1107–1148
Inhalt: This paper contributes to the literature on the gender wage gap by empirically analyzing those workers who hold the highest possible educational qualification, i.e., a Ph.D. The analysis relies on recent Italian cross-sectional data collected through a survey on the employment conditions of Ph.D. holders. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analysis and quantile decomposition analysis are carried out, and the selection of Ph.D. holders into employment and STEM/non-STEM fields of specialization is taken into account. Findings suggest that a gender gap in hourly wages exists among Ph.D. holders, with sizeable differences by sector of employment and field of specialization.
Schlagwörter:gender pay gap; Italien; Italy; Phd; Post-doc; science as a profession; STEM; wissenschaftliche Karriere
CEWS Kategorie:Arbeitswelt und Arbeitsmarkt, Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Wissenschaft als Beruf