A Gendered Divide?

Women in STEM

Women in STEM fields has been a growing discussion and trend across the globe, but the topic is especially prevalent here at Stanford, where feminism is almost universal and STEM is the focal point of much of the academics. There are many student organizations dedicated to supporting and encouraging women in various STEM and business fields-- Society of Women Engineers, SHE++, Women in Design, Mechanical Engineering Women's Group, Women in Computer Science, Women in Medicine, Women in Business, Physics Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities, and Women in Fluid Dynamics.

In contrast, there are no student groups specifically centered on particular academic humanities fields or on pre-professional preparation for women and gender minorities. There is a group known as Stanford Women in Politics, which could be aimed at many types of majors, including women in humanities, but it is a political/activist group, not affiliated with any specific area of study.

These discrepancies demonstrate that entering STEM fields is seen as a more pressing issue for women, whereas humanities has much less discourse around this topic despite facing many of the same issues.

To add to this, if we are discussing STEM and Stanford as parts of a particular "religion" of Silicon Valley, one could discuss the "masculine" nature of STEM, and how its prevalence relates to notions of male-dominated academic fields and the patriarchy. Due to men's historical social dominance, women and gender minorities have dealt their emotions, issues, and ideas being ignored and demeaned for centuries.

STEM's dominance could be seen as another iteration of this, in which what men are interested in and enjoy doing becomes a part of the hegemonic culture and women become encouraged to engage with something they may not have chosen without that influence. This is not to say that women and gender minorities cannot enjoy or care about STEM fields-- that is obviously not the case. But the fact that for several decades now men have dominated STEM fields, that might say something about the stress being put on women to join STEM fields.

Language and the Divide

The language around STEM and humanities fields has very gendered implications-- STEM fields are referred to as technical, rational, harder, and more valuable, while humanities fields are referred to as soft, easy, subjective, and are seen as less likely to result in a 'useful' or well-paying job. Even the term "fuzzy" is a pejorative way of talking about humanities majors, and demonstrates the harmful effects of STEM's cultural dominance.