Gender Bias in the Sciences

Women have come a long way as professionals over the past half century. Women have made advances as scientists and engineers, with a handful of them heads of universities and chief executive officers in scientific or engineering companies. The problem with this development is that only a "few" women have progressed to the top of these fields rather than "roughly half" which is their number in the general population. The main reason for this is the social and professional practice or phenomenon known as gender bias. As William J. Cromie (1999) argues, "Despite 30 years of effort to close the gender gap, it hasn't happened. In 1974, 3 percent of tenured professors in the sciences and engineering were women, compared to less than 10 percent of full professorships in these positions today" (p. 1).

Women continue to face barriers to advancement in the sciences and engineering, primarily due to gender bias, but women also face other barriers in these professions related to sex. This analysis will explore the concept of gender bias in the sciences and engineering, focusing on how it keeps women from advancing in these professions. A conclusion will offer some recommendations to help counterbalance this issue for women who hope to make a career in the sciences or engineering.

The number of women engaged in science and engineering courses of study has increased since the 1970s, with half of the undergraduate science majors and a third of the engineer

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ientific creativity...namely assertiveness and single-mindedness...are both given greater weight in hiring and promotion than traits like flexibility, diplomacy and curiosity, and stereotyped as socially unacceptable traits for women" (p. 1). Women are more than capable of contributing to the country's scientific and engineering enterprise but are impeded because of gender bias and outdated rules that govern academic success. Gender bias is responsible for more than excluding women from graduate programs or preventing them from progressing to the peak of their professional careers. It is also a factor that plays a role in putting up barriers to women during their doctoral training and early careers. As Etzkowitz (1994) notes, "Academic practices, presumed to be meritocratic and gender-free, often work against women's professional success" (p. 1). Etzkowitz (1994) maintains that women are subjected to gender bias as well as a "glass ceiling of gender specific obstacles to advancement into top positions" (p. 2). In many instances, these forms of bias are concealed or hidden by the practice of many institutions of widely publicizing significant achievements of the few women in top positions. As Etzkowitz (1994) explai

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