Critical Annotated Bibliography – Women in STEM
Sarah Wilkerson
University of Maryland University College

Critical Annotated Bibliography – Women in STEM
Beede, D., et al. Women in STEM: A gender gap to innovation. Economics and Statistics Administration Issue Brief 04-11 (2011). Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov The STEM workforce stands for science, technology, engineering and math. These workforce areas are critical to America’s innovation and competitiveness. However, women are majorly underrepresented (<25%) for the last decade in such jobs and even among those who hold degrees in these areas. The article calls it an "untapped opportunity" to expand employment in the United States, even as people call for an improvement to the nation's global competitive advantage. This is often due to a lack of women role models in the field, gender stereotyping and less family-friendly flexibility in these job fields. The article views for the need to increase support to women in such job fields.
Ceci, Stephen J., Donna K. Ginther, S. Shulamit Kahn, and Wendy Williams. 2014. Women in academic science: Explaining the gap. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. DOI: 10.1177/1529100614541236 This article by leading researchers from psychology and economics summarizes and critiques the major explanations for women’s underrepresentation in many (though not all) STEM fields. A great strength is that the results are broken down by individual discipline, making for a much more fine-grained analysis. This article is parallel to the Beede (2011), which focuses on the academic piece of the lack of women continuing to pursue a STEM career.
House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology: Subcommittee on Research and Science Education. Encouraging the Participation of Female Students in STEM Fields. US Government Printing Office. (2009). Retrieved from http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS121195 This source is not an article, but a transcript of a government hearing regarding women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is a useful source because of the broad range of topics covered in the hearing. A variety of men and women in education, STEM fields, and research speak in the hearing, and this breadth of viewpoints provides a more thorough understanding of the problem. Additionally, many of the speakers have some very innovative solutions, and this has helped to back up the ideas presented in the feasibility report.
Jackson, Sarah M., Amy L. Hillard, and Tamera R. Schneider. Using Implicit Bias Training to Improve Attitudes toward Women in STEM. Social Psychology of Education 17.3 (2014): 419-38. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1007/s11218-014-9259-5 This article focuses on the influences of implicit biases on opinions towards women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It references several studies in which the participants are tested on their unconscious biases and opinions, and it presents a variety of solutions for garnering women’s interest in STEM fields. The findings of the study showed that members who participated in a diversity training session improved their implicit associations with women in STEM fields. By comparing this source with the ideas presented by other sources, a more thorough idea of which solutions have the most impact on the gender gap. It will also help to show which studies were most effective towards pinpointing the causes for the gender gap.
McLoughlin, L.A. (2009). Success, recruitment, and retention of academically elite women students without STEM backgrounds in