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Our research assesses a pivotal generation of pioneering American women engineers who graduated from college in the 1970s. In that decade, young women, encouraged in part by the women’s movement and changing social expectations, flocked into higher education and, to a much lesser extent, engineering. These female students, although not the very first women to enter engineering, were the beneficiaries of new affirmative action laws, and unlike their predecessors, they were part of a small but growing cohort of women engineers. The percentage of women earning undergraduate degrees in engineering grew at a rapid rate from less than 1 percent in 1970 to 9 percent in 1979. Understanding the career trajectories of these women may help institutions to develop better means of supporting female engineers. (Article published In the annual research issue on the state of women in engineering.)
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Soldiers to Scientists: Military Service, Gender, and STEM Degree Earning
The authors use 2014–2018 data from the American Community Survey to answer two questions: To what extent is military service associated with higher rates of earning a bachelor’s degree in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field (vs. a non-STEM field)? To what extent is this relationship gendered? The findings suggest that military service is associated with higher odds of completing a STEM degree and that this association is particularly strong for female veterans. Comparison across multiple STEM definitions suggests that military service does not simply channel women into traditionally female-dominated STEM fields. Instead, the findings show the biggest boost for women earning degrees in traditionally male-dominated STEM fields. The authors situate these findings in light of extant empirical and theoretical research on gender gaps in STEM and discuss implications for policy and research.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1728044
- PAR ID:
- 10195978
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
- Volume:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 2378-0231
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 237802312094871
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023120948713
