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How Women Cope: Being a Numerical Minority in a Male‐Dominated Profession
Author(s) -
Richman Laura Smart,
vanDellen Michelle,
Wood Wendy
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2011.01711.x
Subject(s) - feeling , identity (music) , psychological resilience , social identity theory , social psychology , psychology , gender identity , social group , physics , acoustics
Women who have academic careers in engineering have successfully navigated the social identity threats that prevent many other women from feeling that they belong in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. In this research, we examined what factors may be related to resilience in these academic environments. Female academics in engineering and nonengineering fields watched a fictitious conference video depicting either an unbalanced ratio of men to women or a balanced ratio. Subjective measures of identity threat were collected. Past experience with discrimination, positive experience with female role models, family support, and general social support were associated with a greater sense of belonging to or desire to participate in the conference. These variables all buffered negative responding to social identity threat. Implications are discussed for understanding resilience to social identity threat, particularly among women in engineering.