McGowan: Does Science Shortchange Women and Girls?
by Richard McGowan, Ph.D., and Gary McGowan, Ph.D.
In 1996, we presented a paper at a conference arguing that “science textbooks do not present an accurate account of how scientific inquiry was conducted and is conducted now.” Subsequently, our paper, “Attribution, Cooperation, Science, and Girls,” was published. We focused on textbooks for chemistry, G. McGowan’s disciplinary area. Often, chemistry textbooks attributed discoveries to a single person though discovery is the result of people collaborating and cooperating. Science has been conducted in that manner for at least two centuries even if examples of collaborative discovery are millennia old.
For instance, the Pythagorean theory, perhaps the most famous theorem of all, may not have been “discovered” by Pythagoras (c. 570-495 BC). He was part of a society of learners, a brotherhood of sorts. “When discoveries or theories are attributed to Pythagoras, it is more accurate to say they may have been made by his school” and members therein. Further, the theorem “was known to the Babylonians at least 1,000 years earlier,” as Joel Levy, a historian of mathematics, noted. Though the Babylonians and Greek cultures existed independently — diverse in a word — they thought similarly with regard to mathematics.
Another example, and well-known at that, is Isaac Newton’s famous declaration, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Newton understood that his work relied on the work of others.
Further, in the first half of the 15th century, Prince Henry the Navigator brought scientists together under one roof to research together. Bringing people together for purposes of scientific exploration “came into common practice only in the 19th century,” observed Rosenberg and Birdzall. Of course, in the 1500s and the 19th century, scientific research was dominated by men almost to the exclusion of women.
In short, science has been a collaborative, cooperative endeavor, primarily involving men, for at least 2500 years.
Today, it is apparent that the scientific community is self-aware that science is collaborative. Were a person to examine the history of attribution for scientific publications, a person would see that after 1980, articles more often than not cite multiple authors. Further, we observed that the authors are identified by last name and initials for first and second names. The sex of the scientist, male or female, was not disclosed by the first or second name.
Relying on Carol Gilligan’s book, “In a Different Voice,” we projected that the alleged greater cooperative, non-individualistic mentality that girls and women supposedly demonstrate — the one demonstrated by men for a millenia — would induce more girls and women into scientific research. One result would be a diminished disparity between the sexes in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. If Gilligan were correct, the obvious cooperative nature of scientific community would encourage women to pursue research. The ‘gap’ between the sexes in the pursuit of scientific knowledge would shrink.
However, more recent empirical research, for example by Lawrence Walker, Catherine G. Greeno and Eleanor E. Macoby, shows that differences in the way men and women behave are mistaken. That is, they behave similarly in large measure.
Thus, the years since our paper was presented show we were both correct and incorrect. We were incorrect in relying on Gilligan’s work, especially since cooperative research institutions predated Gilligan’s famous ‘ethic of care,’ the one that claims women are cooperative and men individualistic.
We were correct in predicting an increase in women’s earning a Ph.D. in the sciences.
Data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) show the number of female doctorate recipients in S&E (Science and Engineering) fields increased by 91 percent (from 10,540 in 2003 to 20,106 in 2023). In the same years, men saw a 57 percent increase in the number of male S&E doctorate recipients (from 16,219 in 2003 to 25,421 in 2023). By 2022 data, women constituted 44 percent of doctorate recipients in S&E fields. We note, though, that in non-S&E fields, women earned 60 percent of doctorates awarded in 2023. As a result, between 2003 and 2023, doctorates earned by women “hovered between 51 and 53 percent among U.S. citizens and permanent residents.” (NCSES) Or, the data show that women earned the majority of Ph.D.s. accorded American researchers.
The data are likely a consequence of the woman’s movement, the innovative birth control pill and the Vietnam War. Young women were encouraged to pursue education the way young men did; many young men did not enroll in college because they were overseas fighting. As a result, more B.A. degrees were conferred on women in the 1981-1982 school year, a pattern that exists today. By the 1986-1987 school year, more M.A. degrees were conferred on women, a pattern that persists. By school year 2005-2006, more Ph.D. degrees were conferred on women, a pattern that also continues today. In 2009, researchers explored the disparity between men and women in S&E fields. Their conclusion:
“Factors unique to underrepresentation in math-intensive fields include the following: a) Math-proficient women disproportionately prefer careers in non math-intensive fields and are more likely to leave math-intensive careers as they advance; b) more men than women score in the extreme math-proficient range on gatekeeper tests, such as the SAT Mathematics and the Graduate Record Examinations Quantitative Reasoning sections; c) women with high math competence are disproportionately more likely to have high verbal competence, allowing greater choice of professions; and d) in some math-intensive fields, women with children are penalized in promotion rates.”
Years ago, in these very pages, Richard McGowan commented on women’s greater verbal competence that would allow women a wider choice of professions. The data on Ph.D. recipients, inasmuch as the majority are women, is a consequence of women’s greater verbal competence. Women are not left out with regard to science and engineering; they make choices, such as following their verbal competence.
Maybe STEM programs aimed at one sex are misplaced. And maybe we need to focus on why significantly fewer males are foregoing the attainment of any degree at all.
Richard McGowan, Ph.D., an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, has taught philosophy and ethics cores for more than 40 years, most recently at Butler University. Gary McGowan, Ph.D., is Professor of Chemistry at Alfred University. (Notes and citations are included in the web version at www.inpolicy.org.)
NOTES
Garrett McGowan and Richard McGowan, “Attribution, Cooperation, Science, and Girls,” Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society, 19, 6 (Dec 1999) 547-552
Joel Levy, A Curious History of Mathematics, Metro Books (2013)
N. Rosenberg and L.E. Birdzall, Jr., Science, Technology, and the Western Miracle, Scientific American 263, 5 (1983)
Doctorates earned by women 2003-2023: ”During this period, the proportion of doctorates earned by women hovered between 51% and 53% among U.S. citizens and permanent residents…”
Women in Academia report: https://wiareport.com/2024/12/the-large-gender-gap-in-doctoral-awards-in-specific-disciplines/
Ph.D. recipients 2022
https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf24300/table/3-1
https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf22300/report/u-s-doctorate-awards
”Since 2002, women have earned just over half of all doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents and more than 30% of doctorates awarded to temporary visa holders (figure 4). From 2000 to 2008, the share of female doctorate recipients grew from 49% to 52% among U.S. citizens and permanent residents and from 29% to 35% among temporary visa holders.”
Lawrence Walker, “Sex Differences in the Development of Moral Reasoning: A Critical Review” and Catherine G. Greeno and Eleanor E. Maccoby, “How Different is the Different Voice,” found in Mary J. Larrabee’s An Ethic of Care: Feminist and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Routledge, 1993)
Degrees Conferred (BA, MA, PhD)
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_318.10.asp
conferred degrees and degree level, 2022
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d22/tables/dt22_318.30.asp
https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2009-02580-007 [2009]
The evidence indicates that women’s preferences, potentially representing both free and constrained choices, constitute the most powerful explanatory factor; a secondary factor is performance on gatekeeper tests, most likely resulting from sociocultural rather than biological causes.
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