News, Events & Speakers Archive

STEM Creative Zine

The UCSD Women's Center held a call for submissions reflective of the experiences of women in STEM for their Creative Zine. They looked for sketches, poetry or prose, cartoons, comics, and anecdotes, due March 6, 2015.

Workplace Flexibility Stigma

A new study by CRGP Senior Academic Affiliate Erin Cech and Founding Director Mary Blair-Loy has found that flexibility stigma among science faculty is a problem for even childless workers. The article, "Consequences of Flexibility Stigma for Academic Scientists and Engineers," reports that professionals who acknowledge the existence of a flexibility stigma in their workplaces are more likely to consider leaving their places of employment, are less satisfied with their jobs, and feel that they have a more difficult time achieving work-life balance than those who do not indicate the presence of such a stigma. Find more information on this research in Inside Higher Ed and Work in Progress, the blog of the American Sociological Association's Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section.

ASA OOW Blog: Work in Progress

Work in Progress, the blog of the Organizations, Occupations, and Work section of the American Sociological Association, provides a sociological perspective on matters related to work as a complement to more mainstream accounts of the subject. The blog is written for the general public, showcasing recent sociological research in the field. Work in Progress recently featured a post with sociologists Julie Kmec, Lindsey Trimble O'Connor, and Scott Schieman, a CRGP Senior Academic Affiliate, regarding the penalties many working mothers believe they face when they adjust their work schedules after having children. Unlike the men in the sample who made similar schedule changes, these mothers report that they feel ignored and are asked to perform the least desirable tasks at their workplaces, whether they reduce or increase their work hours; the authors attribute such reactions by employers and co-workers to perceived violations of norms of "ideal workers" and of cultural expectations of mothers.

The Persistence of Male Power and Prestige in the Professions: Report on the Professions of Law, Medicine, and Science & Engineering

Gender inequality maintains a tenacious grip on the American workplace. Post-recession, men continue to be more likely than women to retain the lion’s share of power. This holds true even within the professions requiring the most education, where some might imagine the potential for parity would be greatest. This social scientific report and set of three case studies from the Center for Research on Gender in the Professions show that, among those at the pinnacle of power, women still lag behind men.

See Our Report:
The Persistence of Male Power and Prestige in the Professions

Individual Case Studies:

Legal Professions: The Status of Women and Men

Medical Professions: The Status of Women and Men

Science and Engineering Professions: The Status of Women and Men

Media Coverage of the Report

The Report has received attention from numerous news sources, such as the Huffington Post, WBUR Radio Boston, and KPBS. The press release is available from the UCSD News Center. Find a complete listing of the coverage here (PDF).

The Decline of Men? Not So Fast! Links

Recent media reports sensationalize the gains women have made in the labor force, while exaggerating the difficulties men are facing. We have listed the writings by the loudest voices here (PDF).

Understanding Change in Science and Engineering

The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UCSD released a report, entitled Building the Innovation Economy? The Challenges of Defining, Creating and Maintaining the STEM Workforce, which explores why many workers are leaving this field and how they keep their skill sets current despite regular change. 

Ethics and Engineering Education

The "culture of disengagement" among engineering students has the been the subject of recent work by CRGP Senior Academic Affiliate Erin Cech. She conducted a survey of over 300 engineering students in 4 different university settings. Eighteen months post-graduation, students reported less concern about public welfare and social justice issues than they did as first-year students. Cech suggests that ethics considerations should be more fully integrated into STEM education to prevent such disengagement. Her results appear in both "Culture of Disengagement in Engineering Education?," in Science, Technology, & Human Values, and "Education: Embed social awareness in science curricula,"in Nature.

Attrition of Women in SET Fields

The Center for Talent Innovation, founded by economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, issued a report showing that women are 45% more likely than their male counterparts to leave their positions in science, engineering, and technology fields within one year, despite the vast majority reporting enjoyment in and devotion to their work. Almost one-third of both male and female managers indicated that a woman would not reach the highest level in their companies. Similar results are found in other countries as well. The report points to gender bias as the culprit. Read more from The Washington Post.

CRGP Newsletter

View our Spring 2013 newsletter for an update on our 2013 activities.

Flaunt Magazine Features Prison Creative Writing Program

A recent Flaunt magazine article highlights SDSU Professor Paul Sutton's Creative Writing Program at the Donovan Correctional Facility. CRGP Graduate Fellow Laura Pecenco works with the Program as part of her broader dissertation study, which analyzes gender performance and the social construction of multiple masculinities through art creation in prison. The Flaunt article includes an introduction by Prof. Sutton, photographs, and writings by inmate participants.

Funding for the Institute of Social Research, Oslo

The Institute for Social Research, located in Oslo, Norway, where CRGP Senior Academic Affiliate Sigtona Halrynjo serves as Senior Research Fellow, received funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion to become the Norwegian National Center for Research on Gender Equality.

Women and the Gun Control Debate

CRGP Senior Academic Affiliate Ronnee Schreiber, author of Righting Feminism: Conservative Women and American Politics, has analyzed the positions of women across the political spectrum regarding gun control. In a KPBS interview, she discussed the comments made by Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and conservative Independent Women's Forum activist Gayle Trotter. Although the two women differ on their political stances, they both utilize motherhood as the frame for their arguments.

Mary Blair-Loy's Book One of Most Cited Works in Sociology

Competing Devotions (2003), by CRGP Founding Director Mary Blair-Loy, was listed as one of the top 102 works cited in sociology between the years of 2008-2012. The list was created by UNC Assistant Professor Neal Caren.

New Research by Erin Cech and Mary Blair-Loy

A new issue of Gender News, published by Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research, cites CRGP Affiliate Erin Cech and Director Mary Blair-Loy's new research about high-powered women's beliefs in the glass ceiling. Cech and Blair-Loy find that women recognize glass ceilings when they are exposed to work-family balance issues (such as working long hours, being the family breadwinner, and having very young children) themselves. Women tend to not recognize glass celings when they have advanced business degrees, are married, and hold the highest positions in their organization. Whether organizational leaders believe success is affected by personal achievement or organizational factors may impact whether they implement policies in their workplaces designed to help employees overcome structural barriers.

New Theoretical Perspectives on the Nordic Model of Work-Family Reconciliations

Founding Director Mary Blair-Loy and Executive Advisory Board member Kathleen Gerson are participating in a basic research project sponsored by the Norweigian Research Council, providing international and theoretical perspectives on the Nordic model of work-family reconciliations. The project team consists of Professors Elin Kvande and Berit Brandth, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, and CRGP Senior Academic Affiliate Sigtona Halrynjo and Mari Teigen of the Institute for Social Research, Oslo.

Mary Blair-Loy Elected to ASA

CRGP Founding Director Mary Blair-Loy has been elected the Chair-Elect of the Organizations, Occupations and Work section of the American Sociological Association for the 2012-2013 year. Professor Erin Kelly, of the University of Minnesota, will serve as Chair.

Chancellor's Interdisciplinary Collaboratories Project Funded

CRGP Founding Director Mary Blair-Loy, Senior Academic Affiliate Rebecca Plant, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Equity Jeanne Ferrante, along with graduate students Erica Bender, Kate Flach, Emily Goodman, Melissann Herron, and Stacy Williams, have received support from the Dean of Graduate Studies for their Chancellor's Interdisciplinary Collaboratoriesprogram proposal "Gender Inequality: Ideologies and Consequences."

The Myth of the Ideal Worker

CRGP Founding Director Mary Blair-Loy and Senior Academic Affiliate Joan Williams discuss their recent research on the contemporary workforce in "The myth of the ideal worker: new workforce, outdated workplace," by Lauren Aguilar. Blair-Loy notes that the work devotion schema practiced by those in the highest positions in the organizational hierarchy reinforces the concept of the ideal worker and encourages very strict standards throughout the entire workplace, even though nearly half of married American couples live in dual-earner households. Williams argues that "flexibility stigma" explains employees' general lack of usage of available flexible workplace policies. This collaboration is part of a working group spanning multiple universities created by the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Williams, Blair-Loy, and Jennifer Berdahl are the authors of "The Flexibility Stigma," which will be featured in the Journal of Social Issues special issue on flexibility bias.

CRGP Affiliate Erin Cech Discusses Study of Alternative Work Policy

In "Better for profits, Better for workers: Results-Only Work Environments," Erin Cech, Postodoctoral Fellow at Stanford University'sClayman Institute for Gender Research, discusses the findings of a study conducted by sociologists Erin Kelly and Phyllis Moen. Kelly and Moen examined the implementation of "ROWE" (results-only work environment) arrangements in Best Buy's corporate headquarters, finding that it reduced turnover costs by nearly 50%. The idea behind the policy is that it does not matter where or how the work gets done, as long as it is completed on time. ROWE policies help all workers by providing them with more flexibility, but have the potential to especially help women, who often face the most conflict in balancing work and family life. For more into read the full article.

Mary Blair-Loy Featured in Time Magazine

CRGP Founding Director Mary Blair-Loy was quoted on the topics of high-status stress and work devotion in TimeMagazine's March 12, 2012 cover story entitled "10 Ideas That Are Changing Your Life." Author Judith Warner writes, "The very trappings of success can make life harder if you're the sort of driven, work-devoted person that high-status individuals tend to be. Take being able to set your own hours or work from home on occasion: it can be a dream for many but a nightmare for the hard chargers who feel compelled to answer every single e-mail, text or phone message, no matter when it comes or where they happen to be, says Mary Blair-Loy, founding director of the Center for Research on Gender in the Professions at the University of California at San Diego, who is currently researching workaholic men..." Professor Blair-Loy is also directly quoted regarding the "micro-impression management activities" that have become virtual requirements for those with high-status occupations. Portable version of the article is available here (PDF).

ASR Publishes Article by Erin Cech and Colleagues

Erin Cech, CRGP affiliate, UCSD graduate, and postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, is first author of the article "Professional Role Confidence and Gendered Persistence in Engineering," co-authored by Brian Rubineau, Susan Silbey, and Caroll Seron. The article appears in the October issue of the American Sociological Review. In it, they introduce the concept of "professional role confidence" and find that women's relative lack of such confidence explains their attrition from college engineering programs.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Addresses Gender Equality with CRGP Affiliate Joan Williams

In an interview on September 15 with UC Hastings School of Law Professor and CRGP affiliate Joan Williams, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg touched on multiple facets of gender inequality in the U.S. She described her own personal experiences, noting societal expectations placed upon her as a mother but not on her husband as a father. Discussing her advocacy for gender equality during the 1970s, before joining the Supreme Court, she credited the Women's Rights Project and the ACLU for emphasizing the importance of educating the public and pushing for legislative change. Ginsburg also noted her dissenting opinion in the recent class-action lawsuit brought by 1.5 million female Wal-Mart employees, holding that women should be defined as a "class" and that discrimination based on sex had indeed occurred.

Mary Blair-Loy's Article Receives Recognition

Mary Blair-Loy’s article, “Work Without End? Scheduling Flexibility and Work-to-Family Conflict among Stockbrokers” (2009 Work and Occupations 36: 279-317), was a finalist for the 2010 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research. The award recognizes articles that are considered to be the best social scientific research in the area of work and family published during a calendar year. Out of the 2500 work-family articles considered internationally, there were only 6 finalists. 

Her article finds that stockbrokers in firms offering scheduling flexibility feel more conflict between their work and family responsibilities than do stockbrokers in firms with rigid scheduling. This finding suggests that popular thought, which assumes that scheduling flexibility is beneficial to workers and their families, does not apply to jobs with intense client demands and marketplace pressure around the clock. 

This research was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in a grant to Drs. Blair-Loy and Jerry A. Jacobs.

The article can be found here (PDF).

Women College Presidents on Corporate Boards of Directors

A number of women college presidents have recently been asked to become members of corporate boards of directors. However, women are still underrepresented on these boards, as discussed in this Women In Academia Report.

New Research Findings on Women and Team Collective Intelligence

Professors Anita Woolley (Carnegie Mellon) and Thomas Malone (MIT Sloan School of Management) have conducted a study with three colleagues, finding that increasing the number of women on a team also increases its collective intelligence level. They discuss their study in an interview in Harvard Business Review.

New IWPR Reports on the Gender Wage Gap

The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) released two new reports: The Gender Wage Gap: 2010 and The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation.

New AAMC report on Women in Academic Medicine

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) released the 2009-10 edition of “Women in U.S. Academic Medicine: Statistics and Benchmarking Report.” This year’s report presents new data on women appointed to temporary leadership, part-time faculty, instructor, and volunteer instructor positions.

Myths about the Gender Wage Gap

In recent Washington Post and Ms. Magazine articles, Mariko Chang challenges popular myths about the gender wage gap: (1) that it is the result of women’s choices, (2) that it is a relic of the past, (3) that the economic recession favored women, and (4) that the wage gap only affects women. (See Chang’s book, Shortchanged: Why Women have Less Wealth and What Can Be Done about It, Oxford, 2010).

Director Blair-Loy cited in Sunday Boston Globe article

The article entitled "The Bad Mother Complex" appeared on March 13, 2011.

Work and Family Researchers Network

Inaugural Conference, June 14-16, 2012 in Philadelphia, PA. The Work and Family Researchers Network, formerly the Sloan Work and Family Research Network, is directed by Jerry Jacobs and Judi Casey.

MIT's Second Study on the Status of Women

NYT and Inside Higher Ed articles report on a follow-up study to MIT's original landmark report. The study finds that while MIT has made substantial progress in recruiting women, these gains are accompanied by the perception that women are given an unfair advantage.

Affiliate Recognition

Joan Williams' book, Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter, has just been published and her op-ed, "Obama and the Democrats must re-connect with working-class voters," is featured in The Washington Post.

Stigmatized Paternity Leave in Law

Center affiliate Joan Williams is quoted in an ABA Journal article discussing a lawsuit filed by a male lawyer who claims his firm retaliated against him for taking paternal leave.

Flex Time Successes in Accounting

A NYT article on the accounting industry reports that accounting firms that are respectful of employees' work-life balance are excelling at retaining employees.

Importance of Underrepresented Minorities in Science

A new National Academies report says that U.S. science and engineering must involve underrepresented minorities in order for the nation to keep its competitive edge

Informal Codes Hinder Women’s Careers in Construction Companies

A NYT article reports that, in one global engineering construction company, men demanded more responsibility with less training and aggressively worked informal codes of advancement, while women hung back.

The Legal Practice and Parenting

Attorney Frank Kimball discusses the challenges in balancing parenthood and a legal career in a three-part series on the website "Ms. JD."

Gendered Recommendation Letters

An NSF-funded study out of Rice University shows that qualities mentioned in recommendation letters for women differ from those mentioned for men—differences that may cost women jobs and promotions in academia and medicine. For a description of Martin, Hebl and Madera's study, "Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences", see this article.

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Promotion of Professors

A recent MIT study found "uneven" promotion of black, Latino and Native American professors and higher levels of separation. A summary of the study from Inside Higher Ed can be found on this website.

Family Pressures Lead to Leaky Pipelines

A UC Berkeley report entitled Keeping Women in the Science Pipeline finds that married women scientists with children are 35% less likely to enter a tenure-track position post-Ph.D. than similar men, and are 28% less likely than women without children to achieve tenure. This report was featured in a NY Times article.

Gender Differences in Academic Scientists' Participation in Commercial Science

Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan researchers find that male professors receive more opportunities to join scientific advisory boards and start new companies than their female peers. These results are due, in part, to gendered co-authorship networks.   

"Equity for Women--Still"

History professor Linda Kerber discusses women's continued social inequity in a recent article in the Chronicle Review, pointing to changes in workplace policies and cultural beliefs key pathways to greater equality.

News on Women-Owned Tech Firms

According to a New York Times story "Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley," women own 40 percent of the private businesses in the U.S. but only 8 percent of the new venture capital supported technology firms.

News on Women Supreme Court Justices

Lisa Belkin writes in the New York Times Magazine on how different structures of opportunity may have shaped the career and family choices of four women Supreme Court justices and nominees from different generations.

From IWPR

Gender Wage Gap narrows slightly; women's earnings are becoming increasingly important to U.S. families.