The Aug. 19 issue of Science published an article, \More Women in Science"", concerning the increase of degrees earned by women in the biological and physical sciences compared to the disproportionately low female representation in prestigious and accomplished ranks in these fields. According to the article, significant gender bias still exists in professional scientific environments.
The Technology Equal Opportunity Act, passed in 1980, stated it is ""the policy of the United States that men and women have equal opportunity in education, training, and employment in scientific and technical fields."" Yet the Science article argues that women are not treated equally in scientific communities, leading to significantly reduced opportunities in scientific fields.
The authors based their evaluations of discrimination on a diverse collection of studies with the same conclusion: gender bias is real. According to one of the authors, Dr. Molly Carnes, M.D., professor at the UW-Madison Medical School and College of Engineering, bias against individuals with historically lower status is a threat to the acknowledged value of their work. According to Carnes, the scientific community, and society in general, tend to place women in a marginalized status, thus devaluing their work.
According to ""More Women in Science,"" women experience overt discrimination in the scientific community, as well as more subtle biases that create concrete obstacles to their academic and professional advancement.
Carnes explained that women in her mother's generation had to fight social convention to go to college. When Carnes continued her education beyond her undergraduate career, she said that attending medical school was a greater challenge as a woman. Today, women have to struggle for fellowship positions in the scientific community, even when they possess superior qualifications.
""More Women in Science"" referred to a Swedish study that was published in a 1997 issue of Nature that investigated the presence of gender bias displayed by the Medical Research Council, whose evaluators ranked the females' scientific competencies lower than men. According to the study, it is ""generally regarded that this parameter is related to the number and quality of scientific publications."" The Nature article reports that women were evaluated significantly lower than men ""of equal scientific productivity.""
Barriers to women's progress in science come from more than just men, according to Carnes.
Women also possess gender bias devaluing the work of other women, said Carnes. The article also said that discrimination is often unconscious and the atmosphere of discrimination and hostility towards women in scientific fields ""is invisible to many men, who typically describe a better climate for women than women report experiencing,"" according to ""More Women in Science.""
According to Sheridan, the lack of acknowledgment that female scientists receive and the lack of acceptance of women in scientific communities creates real obstacles that impede women from reaching more prestigious positions or to enter engineering, biological and physical science fields in the first place.
The academic and professional scientific communities need to hit gender bias from every angle, Carnes said. The authors of ""More Women in Science"" recommend education for leaders in academic and commercial scientific institutions to become more sensitive to gender bias and receive training to learn how to stop discrimination.
Many organizations, such as the Women in Science & Leadership Institute at UW-Madison, go beyond preventing gender bias by seeking to create professional communities that foster the advancement and networking of capable and talented women in engineering and other scientific fields. Organizations like WISELI help women establish themselves in scientific communities that are predominantly male.
Carnes suggested that women challenge statements that seem based on discriminating assumptions. According to Carnes, if one changes the object of the comment from a woman to a man and the comment becomes absurd, it is most likely a manifestation of gender bias.
As undergraduate and graduate women prepare to move through the academic system to become scientists and professors, they may encounter gender bias. Dr. Cora Merritt, emeritus professor of sociology at UW-Madison, advised that women pursue their desires despite possible discrimination and often-subtle gender bias.
""Undergraduates don't want to believe it,"" said Sheridan, referring to problems of gender discrimination in their current or future environments.
""Young women think it's solved,"" Carnes said. ""Do not assume it's an even playing field because it is not ... assume this at your own peril.\
