文档介绍：1
Examining the Gender of Women in Science and Engineering
2
Women and Science
Discrepancies in the education of men and women have existed in the western
world for thousands of years. Traditionally men have been privilege to the education and
respect granted to the professionals of any culture while women have traditionally been
restricted from acquiring knowledge or occupying positions of influence. While this
inequality can be traced back to the ancient world where it was represented in law, in the
contemporary world the causes of such divisions lay quietly masked in cultural
expectations. While people generally seem unwilling to dispute the equality of men and
women, it is unarguable that different expectations for the roles of men and women are
deep­set in American culture.
Generally when people describe ‘equality’ among individuals or different peoples,
they are referring to an intangible quality that ties the human race together; very rarely do
people consider specific situations. Much like the ‘separate but equal’ mentality that
defined segregationist politics in the first half of the twentieth century, people consider
the roles of men and women in society to be distinct, though equally important. This is
especially true in cases of education. Again, although no one would deny the importance
of educating women through high school and college, the professionalism and academics
of men have been taken far more seriously in the past fifty years than those of women
through every step of the American education system. Although great progress has been
made, with the number of women receiving bachelor’s degrees in science and
engineering (S/E) fields having quadrupled since 1966, stereotypes concerning the roles
of women still abound, and there is great stigma surrounding women who choose to
involve themselves heavily in their professional careers. It is interesting to note that
3
while all fields of