Leaning In or Blocked Out? Female STEM Graduates

• In Event: 75.056 - STEM Education and Society

Abstract

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg called for women to "Lean In," but did not examine the ways that social pathways are structured that might be causing them to be “blocked out”: Which social structural characteristics are related to women’s post-college participation in their chosen field? Which individual level characteristics mediate the relationship?

I find that “Leaning In” is not so much a personal choice, but rather a reflection of the social structures in which female graduates are embedded. Rather than putting the impetus on women to “lean in”, this paper demonstrates that nations can remove social barriers that block female graduates’ pathways to careers.

Author

• Karly Ford, The Pennsylvania State University