gender studies, women and minority in STEM fields, faculty diversity, pipeline issues, intersectionality between gender, race/ethnicity, and class, professional women, work life balance, mentoring, career progression in science and engineering

A mixed-method study of women faculty satisfaction and departure from one research institution

by Susan Gardner

Women in the Oil and Gas Industry in Australia

by Melissa Marinelli

Coauthored with Kristy McGrath, Clough Ltd.
Extended abstract and poster presented at the Australian Petroleum, Production and Exploration Association Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 2012.

As the Australian oil and gas industry faces a continued shortage of skilled employees, increasing the representation... more As the Australian oil and gas industry faces a continued shortage of skilled employees, increasing the representation of women in this industry is a business imperative. Economic success and competitive advantage may depend on attracting and retaining the skills of women. Research shows that a gender-diverse workforce can also be linked to improved business performance, innovation and corporate governance.

While women make up 46% of the Australian workforce and more than 50% of university graduates, present statistics show that on average 13% of workers in the Australian oil and gas industry are women(1). This is a lower proportion than comparable industries in Canada and Norway: women make up 21% and 19% of workers respectively (2),(3). In Norwegian oil companies, this level is as high as 30% (4).

This extended abstract briefly overviews the present research related to women’s retention and progression within the Australian resource sector. It outlines the initiatives being undertaken by government, industry bodies and organisations to increase the representation of women in the Australian sector, and comparable industries in Norway and Canada.

It concludes with a case study about the challenges and lessons learnt in establishing a corporate initiative to increase female participation at Clough Limited. “Women@Clough" is a professional forum established in April 2011 to improve the attraction, retention and progression of women in the workforce. Strategies and key success factors in the establishment of the program are also examined.

Making the Move or Keeping the Connection? Engineering Women as Managers – An Australian Study.

by Melissa Marinelli

Presented at 15th International Conference for Women Engineers and Scientists, Adelaide, Australia, 2011
Published in conference proceedings

This paper describes the initial stages of current research exploring the advancement of women engineers to managers... more This paper describes the initial stages of current research exploring the advancement of women engineers to managers and leaders in technical organizations in Australia. The aim of the research is to provide an understanding of women engineers’ transition to manager and leader from the perspective of those that have lived through this experience. In doing so, it extends existing research on women in non-traditional work, management and leadership and engineering practice. The voice provided by the study broadens and enhances the view of management and leadership in engineering. By focusing on successful transitions, the research findings can inform policy and practice to retain and advance women in engineering – a profession in which women are overwhelmingly underrepresented.

The study uses a qualitative research design guided by phenomenological and feminist perspectives. In depth semi-structured interviews have been used to capture the experiences of women working in non-traditional, male dominated workplaces. This paper presents preliminary analysis of an initial set of eight interviews and focuses specifically on the transition to manager. It explores emerging themes relating to the participant’s newfound roles as managers - Technical Competence, Retaining the Technical Link and Me as Manager. These themes highlight aspects of the participants’ experience of becoming a manager. They also reveal how management is conceptualised in engineering, specifically by women engineers who have advanced to senior positions in the engineering profession, and begin to inform a broader and more inclusive view of management in the engineering profession.

Women's Experience of Transition from Technical Engineer to Manager and Leader - an Australian Study

by Melissa Marinelli

Presented at European Academy of Management conference, Rome, Italy, 2010

Linking into existing research in the areas of women in non-traditional work, management and leadership and... more Linking into existing research in the areas of women in non-traditional work, management and leadership and engineering practice, this paper presents the initial stages of current research exploring the advancement of women engineers to managers and leaders in technical organisations. Using a qualitative methodology, informed by phenomenological and feminist perspectives, the research aims to provide an understanding of women engineers’ transition to manager and leader from the perspective of those that have lived it. This voice will broaden and enhance the existing view of management and leadership in engineering to guide policy and practice advancing women in the profession.

This paper focuses on the motivation for the work and initial literature review, the development of the enquiry framework and research method, and ethical considerations for the project.

Painting the Picture - A Statistical Update on Women in Engineering in Australia

by Melissa Marinelli

Co-authored with Martina Calais, Murdoch University, Western Australia
Presented at the 15th International Women Engineers and Scientists conference, Adelaide, Australia, 2011.
Published in conference proceedings.

The paper examines women’s participation in engineering education and workforce in Australia. Using data from recent... more The paper examines women’s participation in engineering education and workforce in Australia. Using data from recent editions of Engineers Australia’s The Engineering Profession: A Statistical Overview and drawing heavily on a detailed analysis of 2006 Population Census data, the aim is to show trends in the commencements, enrolments and graduations of female engineering students and to give an overview of the nature of female participation in the engineering workforce.
Key findings include:
• slight increases in female percentage participation in engineering studies from 2001 to 2008, with growth in overseas and postgraduate students;
• the 2006 engineering labour force included 9.8% women, while 10.7% of individuals with engineering qualifications were women;
• unique and significant gender differences in the uptake of full-time and part-time employment exist;
• the gender pay gap is evident, with female engineers in full and part-time positions earning lower average weekly salaries than male engineers;
• a higher percentage of qualified engineering women are not in the labour force, compared to men, with a notable difference in the age groups around 35 years; and
• gender segregation of the engineering labour force by occupation and industry is seen, with a higher proportion of women in clerical / administrative and sales roles and health care & social and accommodation & food sectors.
The work is the foundation for a regular update of gendered statistical data that will establish a detailed picture of engineering women in Australia and will assist with targeted progression of issues.

Increasing the Number of Women in Engineering: The Common Interest of Canadian Educated and Immigrant Women Engineers

by Bonnie Slade

Paper presented at the 2004 Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science and Technology Conference Brock University.

This paper explores the history of women in engineering in Canada and makes recommendations to increase the number of... more This paper explores the history of women in engineering in Canada and makes recommendations to increase the number of women in engineering. In 1975, women represented 3.6 per cent of engineering students in Canadian universities. A movement to increase the number of women in engineering in Canada emerged in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. In 1977, women engineers began organizing to develop strategies to remove barriers to women’s equality of opportunity in engineering. Since that time, especially after the 1989 “Montreal Massacre”, initiatives have focused on making educational programs free from negative stereotypes of women, encouraging girls and women to pursue careers in engineering, as well as developing mentoring programs and women's networks. These efforts have yielded impressive results; in 2000, women comprised 20.3% of Canadian engineering students. The sole focus of this advocacy, however, has been on girls in the Canadian education system and on women engineers who have been educated in Canada.
The recruitment of highly skilled immigrants through immigration policies is a critical part of the Canadian blueprint for economic success. Immigration is increasing responsible for labour force growth in Canada; by 2011, immigration will account for all net labour force growth. Throughout the history of immigration to Canada, professional women have been an important sector of the immigrant population. Their education and experience is often in professions considered "non-traditional” for women in Canada, such as engineering. From 1992 to 2000, 5,291 women graduated from Ontario universities with engineering degrees. Through data analysis of immigration reports, this research shows that over 6,000 women engineers immigrated to Ontario from 1992 to 2000. There has been little connection between the Canadian-educated and immigrant women engineers. To increase the number of women in engineering in Canada there is a need for Canadian-educated women engineers to work together
with immigrant women engineers.

Women’s attitudes to “women in…” initiatives

by Sally Male

Refereed paper presented at 2002 International Women in Leadership Conference at Edith Cowan University

Participation of women on committees of professional engineering organisations: opportunities and barriers

by Sally Male

Refereed paper presented at International Women in Leadership Conference 2003, hosted by Edith Cowan University

Recruitment and Retention of Female Students in Engineering Courses at Curtin University of Technology

by Sally Male

Refereed paper presented at 12th International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists, Ottawa, 2002

Understanding the Interconnections Between Ethnicity, Gender, Social Class and Health Experiences of Minority Ethnic Women in Britain

by Ravinder Barn

Barn, R. and Sidhu, K. (2004) Understanding the interconnections between ethnicity, gender, social class and health: Experiences of minority ethnic women in Britain, Social Work in Health Care, 39(1-2),11-27.

Abstract: This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study about the impact of ethnicity, gender, and... more Abstract: This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study about the impact of ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status upon health, and use and access to appropriate service provision. A total of 54 interviews were carried out with women who identified themselves as Muslim and Bangladeshi. Health and social care professionals were also interviewed. However, the focus of this paper is upon the ways in which women conceptualised their health and social care needs and concerns. Our findings indicate that individual characteristics serve to mediate the influence of gender and ethnicity on health, but for the women in our study, socio-economic status represents the most potent factor in adversely affecting their health status and access to health care.

Daycare

by Heather Wyatt-Nichol

(2010). Encyclopedia of Motherhood. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc, 273-275.

Blue-Collar Mother/White-Collar Daughter: A Perspective on US Policies Toward Working Mothers

by Heather Wyatt-Nichol

(2009). Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering. 11(2), 111-121.

Case Study: Female-Friendly Policies in the Academe

by Heather Wyatt-Nichol

(2011). In M.J. D’Agostino & H. Levine (Eds.), Women in Public Administration: Theory and Practice (pp. 45-65).

The Women's Experiences in College Engineering (WECE) Study

by Meredith Knight

Co-authored with Irene Goodman, Christine Cunningham, Cathy Lachapelle, Katherin Bittinger. The Women's Experiences in College Engineering Study was a 3 year, longitudinal study of why women choose to study engineering and why they persist or switch out of the majors.

Handling Risky Knowledge: Gender and Scientific Risk-taking

by David Rier

Journal of Men’s Health and Gender 2:364-68; 2005.

Like the practice of clinical medicine, medical research and the knowledge it generates involve their own risks. This... more Like the practice of clinical medicine, medical research and the knowledge it generates involve their own risks. This paper examines various societal and career risks of working with certain types of medical knowledge, and discusses empirical research on gender and risk-taking in science. It considers the questions this literature raises regarding decision-making about risky knowledge, as women increasingly enter new roles as researchers, consultants, regulators, and bureaucrats in science and medicine. In particular, it focuses on the relative hesitance of women scientists to take risks in their careers, and asks whether this predicts how they will handle risky knowledge as they enter new positions of decision-making authority in science and medicine. Limitations in existing data preclude firm predictions, but the paper sets out numerous questions for further study.

Keywords: Gender; risk-taking; scientific knowledge; medical research; policy-making

Taking women students seriously: Employing inclusive approaches to science teacher education in primary science.

by Sonya N. Martin

Kirch, S. & Martin, S. (2010). Taking women students seriously: Employing inclusive approaches to science teacher education in primary science. In K. Scantlebury, J.B. Kahle, & S. Martin [Eds.], Re-visioning science education from feminist perspectives: Challenges, choices and careers (pp.125-134). The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Eye‐rollers, risk‐takers, and turn sharks: Target students in a professional science education program

by Sonya N. Martin

Martin, S., Milne, C., & Scantlebury, K. (2006). Eye rollers, risk-takers, and turn sharks: Target students in a professional science education program. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43 (8), pp. 819 - 851

In classrooms from kindergarten to graduate school, researchers have identified target students as students who... more In classrooms from kindergarten to graduate school, researchers have identified target students as students who monopolize material and human resources. Classroom structures that privilege the voice and actions of target students can cause divisive social dynamics that may generate cliques. This study focuses on the emergence of target students, the formation of cliques, and professors' efforts to mediate teacher learning in a Master of Science in Chemistry Education (MSCE) program by structuring the classroom environment to enhance nontarget students' agency. Specifically, we sought to answer the following question: What strategies could help college science professors enact more equitable teaching structures in their classrooms so that target students and cliques become less of an issue in classroom interactions? The implications for professional education programs in science and mathematics include the need for professors to consider the role and contribution of target students to the learning environment, the need to structure an equitable learning environment, and the need to foster critical reflection upon classroom interactions between students and instructors. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 819–851, 2006

Increasing the Numbers of Women in Science

by Gwen White

The loss spiral of work pressure, work-home interference and exhaustion: Reciprocal relations in a three-wave study

by Arnold Bakker

Modeling the career pathways of women STEM faculty through oral histories and participatory research methods.

by Alice Pawley

Co-authored with Jordana Hoegh

Women increasingly earn advanced degrees in science, technology, and mathematics (STEM), yet remain underrepresented... more Women increasingly earn advanced degrees in science, technology, and mathematics (STEM), yet remain underrepresented among STEM faculty. Much of the existing research on this underrepresentation relies on “chilly climate” and “pipeline” theoretical models to explain this phenomenon. However, the extent to which these models follow women’s actual career pathways has been undertheorized. Further, alternative metaphors may more aptly describe the career pathways of women STEM faculty. In our broader research project, we examine the ways women’s career pathways into STEM faculty positions are similar to and/or different from chilly climate and pipeline models, and if they vary based on race and/or ethnicity. At present, we focus on the ways oral histories and participatory research methods allow us to model the career pathways of women STEM faculty.


Our goal is to illustrate how oral history and participatory research are effective methods to:

1) identify women’s career pathways into STEM faculty;
2) compare and contrast career pathways to climate and pipeline metaphors as well as discover new metaphors;
3) identify critical points in women’s career pathways; and
4) discover new information about women’s paths into STEM faculty.

We describe early results from a set of semi-structured interviews of women faculty in STEM disciplines collected as part of research done through an ADVANCE grant, a NSF- funded project intended to achieve improved career success for women faculty in STEM disciplines. Interviews begin with oral histories that give context, depth, and structure to women’s pathways into STEM faculty careers. Through participatory research methods, we tell participants the goals of the research and ask them to discuss, challenge, and suggest ways institutions may improve career success for women STEM faculty. Taken together, career pathways are modeled and compared with chilly climate and pipeline models. This innovative methodological approach will inform policy, recruitment procedures, and ways to retain women faculty.