Sexism in female dominated scientific field
We’ve spent a great amount of time over the last week to talk over how sexism exists in male-dominant fields in science and technology. That these fields is mostly seen as male dominant and female interested in pursuing a career in those would be anticipated to suffer from not being trusted and not being seen as capable. However, I would argue that the fact that such male-domination is not the only form of sexism in the scientific society.
In this article, as data has shown, “botany, statistics, and health care industries” are dominated by female scientists and female workers. However, as the author goes on, I can still sense the effect of the colored-lens named “gender”.
In trying to explain why botany is a female dominant field, the author states that women engaged in botany as a result of them socially unable to work outside of their house. In other words, female dominate the field because of restraint posed by the society. Also, as mentioned in the readings this week, mentorship is more accessible to female willing to participate in botany because of the domination.
Furthermore, I find some more common features whom the society classify as feminine categories. That statistics field is growing into a field that uses “an understanding of variation to make better decisions regarding vital societal issues”. Thus, the field is becoming more and more collaborative and communicative so that more and more women are gaining access to the industry is inherently gender-biased.
In conclusion, even though some fields are currently dominated by females, the society is still trying to justify the situation with sexism words and phrases. If we want to change and create a better environment for female, we have to start from considering come up with neutral terms to avoid tendency of being gendered.
(Here is a chart about women dominant fields in the US)
