Journal Articles

Distancing as a Gendered Barrier : Understanding Women Scientists’ Gender Practices

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Gendered barriers to women’s advancement in STEM disciplines are subtle, often the result of gender practices, gender stereotypes, and gendered occupational cultures. Professional socialization into scientific cultures encourages and rewards gender practices that help to maintain gendered barriers. This article focuses more specifically on how individual women scientists’ gender practices potentially sustain gender barriers. Findings based on interview data from thirty women in academic STEM fields reveal that women draw on gendered expectations and norms within their disciplines to discursively distance themselves from other women they perceive as having deviated from such norms and expectations. The types of distancing in which these respondents engage reflect and support gendered structures, cultures, and practices that ultimately disadvantage women and obscure gender inequality. I conclude by discussing the implications of women scientists’ distancing practices for efforts to change the gendered cultures of STEM disciplines.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Gender & Society

Call Number

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Publisher

Thousand Oak : sage publisher., 2012

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

08912432

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Vol. 25 no. 6, December 2011 ,pp. 696-716

Subject(s)

Organizations
Work/occupations
Knowledge/science
Distancing as a Gendered Barrier

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