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Every now and then discussions about gender and STEM pop up on this listserv and I thought these articles were an interesting look at several studies trying to uncover some of the reasons women have made strides in some fields but continue to be underrepresented in the sciences.

Here's a press release about an article and a studies:
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/12781

Here's an article that describes the research:
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/pdf/August11/ParkRomanticAttitudes.pdf
[966KB]

Abstract
"The present research examined the impact of everyday romantic goal strivings on women’s attitudes toward science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM). It was hypothesized that women may distance themselves from STEM when the goal to
be romantically desirable is activated because pursuing intelligence goals in masculine domains (i.e., STEM) conflicts with
pursuing romantic goals associated with traditional romantic scripts and gender norms. Consistent with hypotheses, women,
but not men, who viewed images (Study 1) or overheard conversations (Studies 2a-2b) related to romantic goals reported
less positive attitudes toward STEM and less preference for majoring in math/science compared to other disciplines. On days
when women pursued romantic goals, the more romantic activities they engaged in and the more desirable they felt, but
the fewer math activities they engaged in. Furthermore, women’s previous day romantic goal strivings predicted feeling more
desirable but being less invested in math on the following day (Study 3)."



Thanks,

- Len



Len Adams
Health Promotion Specialist
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
3629 South D Street
Tacoma, WA 98418

253-798-6129


"Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule."   -  Stephen King, ["Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully - in Ten Minutes", 1988]


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