The research that my partner Kennedy and I have done so far is very interesting. We emailed 15 or so professors, both men and women, and only women responded to our request of interviews and class observations. My interview went well with Professor Borda, who’s been at Western for 13 years. She said that when she was young and just started teaching, she was judged more harshly on her abilities as a professor than a young, male chemistry professor would have been. She sees a huge discrepancy in women versus men in chemistry, especially professors with tenure. The long-term professors with benefits are largely male, while the short-term, temporary professors are mostly female. This can be combatted by changing the institutions and social structures that allow men to succeed more than women.
Another interview that I conducted was via email, with professor Anderson. She is a math professor and grew up with constant encouragement from her dad towards mathematics. She also believes that the STEM world is male dominated, and whenever she is in a higher position of power than a male peer, she feels challenged by them. She feels that we can combat this social justice issue of white males in STEM by teaching women and people of color from a young age (K-12) about the wonders of the STEM world. Though she does identify as as strong independent women, she’s not sure if she identifies as a feminist. This is because she doesn’t feel as though she goes out of her way to educate people about it.
For observations, we sat in on a math 124 (calculus) class taught by professor Abegg. I noticed that there was a few more men in the class, and they asked more questions in class. However, more women sat in the front and only women wrote questions quietly on the board before class to be answered once the period started.
Our data seems to be going as planned, and I’m not surprised by how the research has gone so far. We are ahead and have completed our data, with over 200 survey responses, 4 interviews, and sat in on 2 classes for observation.
I love your observations about the math class. That counts as solid data. This research is really cutting edge, and I would recommend sharing your findings with other departments on campus.