Training for and pursuing a career in science can be treacherous for women; many more begin than ultimately complete at every stage. Characterizing this as a pipeline problem, however, leads to a focus on individual women instead of structural conditions. The goal of the book is to offer an alternative model that better articulates the ideas of agency, constraint, and variability along the path to scientific careers for women. The chapters in this volume apply the metaphor of the road to a variety of fields and moments that are characterized as exits, pathways, and potholes. The scholars featured in this volume engaged purposefully in translation of sociological scholarship on gender, work, and organizations. They focus on the themes that emerge from their scholarship that add to or build on our existing knowledge of scientific work, while identifying tools as well as challenges to diversifying science. This book contains a multitude of insights about navigating the road while training for and building a career in science. Collectively, the chapters exemplify the utility of this approach, provide useful tools, and suggest areas of exploration for those aiming to broaden the participation of women and minorities. Although this book focuses on gendered constraints, we are attentive to fact that gender intersects with other identities, such as race/ethnicity and nativity, both of which influence participation in science. Several chapters in the volume speak clearly to the experience of underrepresented minorities in science and others consider the circumstances and integration of non-U.S. born scientists, referred to in this volume as international scientists. Disaggregating gender deepens our understanding and illustrates how identity shapes the contours of the scientific road.  

Table of Contents:
Introduction, Enobong Hannah Branch Part I: Navigating the Scientific Path Chapter 1: Gendered Responses to Failure in Undergraduate Computing: Evidence, Contradictions, and New Directions, Enobong Hannah Branch and Sharla Alegria Chapter 2: Is College Enough? Gender Disparities in the Use of Science and Engineering Degrees in the Workforce, Margaret L. Usdansky and Rachel A. Gordon Part II: Detours, Off-Ramps, and Gendered Roadblocks in Scientific Careers Chapter 3: Women Faculty in Computing: A Key Case of Women in Science, Mary Frank Fox and Kathryn Kline Chapter 4: Does the Road Improve in the Land of the Tenured? Exploring Perceptions of Culture and Satisfaction by Rank and Gender, Julia McQuillan, Mary Ann Holmes, Patricia Wonch Hill, and Mindy Anderson-Knott Chapter 5: Potholes and Detours on the Road to Full Professor: A Tale of STEM Faculty at Two Liberal Arts Colleges, Catherine White Berheide Part III: What the Pipeline Misses: Gender Performance at Work Chapter 6: Crisis of Confidence: Young Women Doing Gender and Science, Laurel Smith-Doerr, Timothy Sacco, and Angela Stoutenburgh Chapter 7: Who’s the Expert? Gendered Conceptions and Expressions of Expertise by Chemists-in-Training, Laura Hirshfield Part IV: Differential On-Ramps? Historical Forces Shaping the Scientific Workforce Chapter 8: The Postdoc Pothole: The Changing Segmentation of the Biomedical Research Workforce, 1993-2008, Lisa M. Frehill Chapter 9: The Long Shadow of Immigration Policy: “Appropriate Work” and Wage Inequality in U.S. Tech Work, Sharla Alegria and Cassaundra Rodriguez Part V: Creating a Road Map: Strategies for Persistence Chapter 10: Pathways for Women in Global Science, Kathryn Zippel Chapter 11: Agency of Women of Color in STEM: Individual and Institutional Strategies for Persistence and Success, Maria Ong, Lily T. Ko, and Apriel K. Hodari Chapter 12: Smooth Roads to Promotion: Creating Data Guided and Community Generated Changes for Eliminating Bumps and Potholes, Julia McQuillan, Mary Ann Holmes, Patricia Wonch Hill, and Mindy Anderson-Knott