Studies show that when children are asked to draw a picture of a scientist, they will most likely draw a male figure in a white lab coat.
And this perception has been proven to extend beyond children: The stereotype of scientists being dominantly men exists not only in young children, but teens and adults as well.
In an attempt to explore gender roles in the study of science, the UCLA Center for the Study of Women is scheduled to hold a conference titled “Gender and Science” today.
Guest speakers plan to give four different presentations and the event will also feature a panel discussion. The goal of the various activities is to look at the intersections between science and power and how these intersections shape lives, said April de Stefano, assistant director of the center.
Brenda Johnson-Grau, managing editor at the center, said the conference will be an opportunity to share ideas and findings about the topic, as well as address the barriers to female advancement in science.
Organizers of the event said they hope it will demonstrate the various obstacles women in science continue to face within the academic sphere.
The issue does not stem from a lack of academic merit and knowledge, but rather from social gender stereotypes that deter women from the sciences, Johnson-Grau said.
One major obstacle has been the age-old belief that women cannot do science and are not as good at math as men, she added.
The panel will be led by Rosina Becerra, UCLA associate vice chancellor for Faculty Diversity, and Elma Gonzalez, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Both plan to provide an institutional perspective on the challenges and efforts to increase the number of women in the sciences at UCLA, Johnson-Grau said.
Gonzales pointed to one limiting factor for women in the sciences, saying women sometimes do not receive the same opportunities as men because of the lack of monetary resources available to them as a result of competition among all scientists vying for funding, the majority of whom are men.
“Success in science has a lot to do with money,” Gonzalez said. “If you want to do your own work, you’ll need to apply for grants.”
Since the role of funding is a key difference between science and other disciplines, a woman has to have an impressive work history to compete with other male scientists for that money, so she must start early in her career, Gonzalez said.
“There’s a difference between getting a job where you always have to do what your boss tells you to do and getting a position where you can play a role in science and let your own ideas enter the mainstream,” Gonzalez said.
One of the speakers, Joan Roughgarden, an evolutionary biologist and professor at Stanford, will address the changing concepts of sex and gender in biology from the perspective of a transsexual.
“Diversity is an important topic for this university because everyone should get an opportunity at success in science and not be shut out because of gender,” Johnson-Grau said.
As women become more aware of the challenges of career advancement in science, and as people become more informed about the issue of gender and science, the number of women in science is increasing, Johnson-Grau said.
“Diversity is an important goal for the university and there has definitely been a positive change,” she said.
“The question is whether the change is fast enough.”