Hanson-r
Dr. Sandra L. Hanson's Recent Research
Date: 4-16-97
Re: Recent research on women in science
I have been
studying women in science with grant support from the National Science
Foundation for the past five years. Recently, I began to look at the
implications of involvement in sport for young womens' success in science.
The results are fascinating. They provide considerable optimism regarding the
positive consequences of sport for young womens' lives.
The
data that I have used to examine these sport/science issues come from two
large nationally representative data sets collected by the National Center
for Education Statistics (NCES). They are High School and Beyond (HSB) and
the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS). Each consists of
thousands of young people at various points in their education... ranging
from high school to college. The analyses have shown that
involvement in sport has a positive consequence for young womens' success in
science (measured using information on math and science achievement,
course-taking and attitudes). There is little effect of sport participation
on young mens' science experiences. This finding is very
interesting, especially given the literature showing that sport has a
more positive effect on young mens' overall educational achievement
than on young womens'.
Not all young women receive the same benefits from sport. White women from
homes with more socio-economic resources see more of these benefits than do
other women. There is no positive effect of sport for African American women,
regardless of their families' resources. Interestingly, the
effect of sport on the science experiences of young women from 1980 cohorts
were stronger than effects for later cohorts. As more women enter the sport
arena, they become a less select group and the benefits continue but are
slightly lesl powerful than when a small select group of women enter sport.
The positive effects of sport exist for women in high
school through college but are their strongest in the early high
school years. In addition, the type of sport or level of involvement
in sport seems to be of little importance for these positive effects.It
is involvement in sport, per se, that gives these young women an edge in the
science field.
The mechanisms through which sport works to young womens' advantage in
science are numerous. Through their experiences in the male domain of sport
young women develop competetive, success-oriented skills and establish
networks that work to their advantage in the male domain of science. There
are few other areas of life where women can receive this kind of
socialization. Their experiences in the family, school, and community tend to
push them toward traditionally feminine characteristics and activities that
clash with the male world of science.
Young men, on the other
hand, do not receive unique socialization in the world of sport. For them, it
supports the messages that they receive from most other sources. In addition,
communities, schools, coaches, and athletes tend to focus more on mens'
sports than womens' sports. Thus sport is a bigger investment for young
menthan women and might detract from success in other areas, especially
one of the most difficult areas of the education curriculum... science.
For more information on the sport/science research that I am conducting
with my coauthor Rebecca Kraus, contact me at 202-319-5955 or e-mail me at
"Hanson@cua.edu".
Other work
underway: An analysis of the experiences of young minority women in the
science domain has also yielded new and interesting results. It has often
been assumed that young African American women would do less well in science
than other groups since minorities do less well in science than whites and
since women do less well in science than men. Surprisingly, my
analyses (together with research associate Elizabeth Palmer Johnson)
show that young African American women often do as well or better
than their white counterparts and almost always do better than
young African American men. Explanations for these findings come from
an examination of African American family culture. Here, women have always
worked and been expected to combine work and family. In addition, African
American families have begun to make larger investments in their daughters
than their sons -- a tradition which is in opposition to that of a majority
of white families. Results from this research will be presented at the
American Sociological Meetings in Toronto in the summer of
1997.
Recent publications: For a review of my research on lost
talent among women in the sciences see my recently published book,
LOST TALENT: WOMEN IN THE SCIENCES. Published in 1976 by Temple University
Press. For a presentation of my research with David Baker and Maryellen
Schaub comparing young womens' access to science in 7 countries, see "Gender
Stratification in Science Occupations: A Comparative Analysis of the Science
Pipeline in Seven Countries" in GENDER AND SOCIETY, 1996.
Last updated March 19, 1998
By
gormanl@cua.edu
