Professional Socialization as an Organizational Change Mechanism in Gendered STEM Workplaces

• In Event: 1184 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 01. Gender and STEM

Abstract

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields have been dealing with the discrepancy between women’s increasing entry into higher education and their persistent underrepresentation in workplaces. This study examines professional socialization among graduate research assistants and their supervising professors in project-oriented research institutions. Drawing on 38 individual interviews with these women scientists/engineers in the U.S. and South Korea, this study finds that the female researchers socialize into field-specific workplace subcultures differently in biology, engineering and biomedical engineering. As these women employees contextualize their strategies for their professional success and advance, their professional socialization serves as a field-specific mediator for the organizational changes towards more gender-equitable STEM workplaces.

Authors

• Yun Kyung Cho, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Myra Marx Ferree, University of Wisconsin