The Deserving Professional: Instability and Inequality in the Oil and Gas Industry

• In Event: 3459 - Women’s STEM Underrepresentation: Roles of Employees, Organizations, and Institutions

Abstract

Despite years of effort to diversify them, the STEM professions are stubbornly dominated by white men. Women have increased their representation in these college majors, but soon after graduating, many leave. Most sociologists attribute the attrition of women from these fields to family responsibilities, incompatibility, and the dynamics of tokenism. In this article, I argue that organizational instability contributes to women’s attrition from science and engineering careers. During periods of downsizing, companies may prefer to retain white male breadwinners, a hegemonic ideal I refer to as “the deserving professional.” This study is based on in-depth interviews with STEM workers at a company in the oil and gas industry, conducted over three years of boom-and-bust. Respondents observed that mass layoffs targeted people on the basis of age, diversity, and family status, with those under 50, those not representing “diversity,” and those with bread-winning responsibilities deemed most worthy of keeping their jobs. I conclude that examining layoffs can reveal otherwise hidden preferences and practices that contribute to inequality in the STEM professions.

Author

• Christine L. Williams, University of Texas-Austin