Removing Barriers

Jill M. Bystydzienski is Director of the Women's Studies Program and Professor of Sociology at Iowa State University.Sharon R. Bird is Associate Professor of Sociology and an affiliate of the Women's Studies Program at Iowa State University.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionJill M. Bystydzienski and Sharon R. BirdPart I. History of Women in STEM Fields1. Sustaining Gains: Reflections on Women in Science and Technology in the Twentieth-Century United StatesSally Gregory Kohlstedt2. From "Engineeresses" to "Girl Engineers" to "Good Engineers": A History of Women's U.S. Engineering EducationAmy Sue BixPart II. Institutional and Cultural Barriers for Women in STEM3. Using POWRE to ADVANCE: Institutional Barriers Identified by Women Scientists and EngineersSue V. Rosser4. Telling Stories about Engineering: Group Dynamics and Resistance to DiversityCynthia Burack and Suzanne E. Franks5. The Gender Gap in Information TechnologyMo-Yin S. Tam and Gilbert W. Bassett, Jr.6. African American Women in Science: Experiences from High School through the Post-secondary Years and BeyondSandra L. Hanson7. African Women Pursuing Graduate Studies in the Sciences: Racism, Gender Bias, and Third World MarginalityJosephine Beoku-Betts8. Gendered Experiences in the Science ClassroomMolly J. DingelPart III. Feminist Study of Scientific Practice9. The Construction of Sexual Bimorphism and Heterosexuality in the Animal KingdomKirsten Smilla Ebeling10. Feminism and Science: Mechanism without ReductionismCarla Fehr11. Across the Language Barrier: Gender in Plant Biology and Feminist TheoryDana A. Dudle and Meryl AltmanPart IV. Remedies and Change12. The Graduate Experience of Women in STEM and How It Could Be ImprovedAnne J. MacLachlan13. How Can Women and Students of Color Come to Belong in Graduate Mathematics?Abbe H. Herzig14. Designing Gender-Sensitive Computer Games to Close the Gender Gap in TechnologyAnna M. Martinson15. Making Sense of Retention: An Examination of Undergraduate Women's Participation in Physics CoursesHeidi Fencl and Karen R. Scheel16. Creating Academic Career Opportunities for Women in Science: Lessons from Liberal Arts CollegesNeal B. Abraham17. Beyond Gender Schemas: Improving the Advancement of Women in AcademiaVirginia ValianSelected ReadingsContributorsIndex

"In 2002, a National Science Foundation (and University of Iowa) conference focused on retention of women in academic sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A main objective was the opportunity to share information and develop possibilities for creating retention initiatives for programs benefiting women and minorities in STEM career paths. This book highlights strong evidence in academia that there is still much resistance to developing women and minority groups for STEM careers. The overall concern is that in the last decade, little progress was made in recruiting and maintaining women in these fields; e.g., of 14,313 US PhDs in 2002, only 353 were African American women, 103 Latinas, and 32 Native American women. This book reviews current barriers to opportunities for participation in the sciences and discusses how academia can address possible solutions, important for academic deans to consider when hiring new faculty. Participants offered understanding of challenges of entering these career fields and at the same time showed how some institutions transformed by including women, and recommended some possible best practices. For women's studies and academic departments interested in diversifying their academic units in STEM areas. An excellent, thought—provoking read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper—division undergraduates through faculty."—L. L. Morgan, University of Notre Dame, CHOICE, Feb. 2007"This book reviews current barriers to opportunities for participation in the sciences and discusses how academia can address possible solutions, important for academic deans to consider when hiring new faculty. . . . For women's studies and academic departments interested in diversifying their academic units in STEM areas. An excellent, thought-provoking read. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice". . . an interesting and thought-provoking addition to the literature on gender in science.Vol. 114.4 January 2009"—Catherine Riegle-Crumb, University of Texas, Austin