Caliq,
If we want to (respectfully) discuss gender inequality in STEM, isn't it equally important to discuss the gender inequality my son in law faces every day?
He is a male High School teacher...
No, we don't have to discuss that. Your son-in-law may deal with gender-based stereotypes in his daily work life, but I highly doubt he faces systemic gender inequality -- Presumably he has the job he wants, at a rate of pay that is equal to if not greater than the pay received by women in the same field. You can look up statistics on pay and promotion rates of male vs. female nurses; even in traditionally female-dominated careers, men are viewed as more supervisory and promoted frequently, even when they don't want to be. In fact, if your SIL aspired to education administration and obtained appropriate degrees/training, I can almost guarantee you that he would be hired/promoted to Vice Principal significantly faster than a woman with the exact same qualifications.
You can also look up statistics on inequality in pay rates, graduation rates, and promotion rates in various STEM disciplines. I happened to have looked this up this morning, for my own cost/benefit analysis of getting a PhD vs. PharmD vs. entering industry with a BS in Molecular Bio, so I have it handy and I will provide it. Normally I wouldn't but today's your lucky day ;) Also, I would like to point out that the equality in grad student stipends is because they're set levels mandated by the university and published publicly; there is very little room for negotiation or alteration. This is not the case at higher levels, and so disparity sets in.
Link:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38033/title/2013-Life-Sciences-Salary-Survey/Several other interesting studies have been done where the researchers submit several CVs for academic job positions and/or training programs, in a variety of disciplines. The CVs (for each discipline/application type) are identical in every way, except for the name and gender pronouns. Names typically associated with white males are offered interviews with alarmingly greater frequency than those associated with females or minorities. When asked about their choices afterwards, the hiring/accepting scientists tend to say things like "I just thought this resume showed more competence." This occurs even when the person making the decision is a female. It's so ingrained in our society to view males as more assertive, competent, and respectable that women AND men do it subconsciously, even if they recognize the gender inequality issue needs to be corrected. Little girls are 'too bossy' or 'intense'; little boys are 'go-getters' and 'leaders'. This morphs into women who are 'bitchy' vs. men who are 'assertive.' I don't have links to this data handy but it's not hard to find -- it made a pretty big splash in the media.
It's bullshit. It has a huge impact on girls and women every second of every day. I can give you countless examples from my life alone, but I will provide you with the most obvious one that's happened so far:
I was an undergraduate TA for a non-majors general biology course a few years ago. As a TA, you have to attend lectures so you know where the students are in the material and what the professor wants them to focus on, and you generally sit in the back of the classroom near students. For the first week of class or so, the professor will point you out and make sure the students know who you are and what your office hours are and when you're running study sessions.
One day, the kid sitting next to me started talking to me after the professor introduced me and explained why I was there. The kid asked me why I was TAing. I said, well I'm a biology major and I get credit for TAing and also gain teaching experience. He kind of laughed and said, "Oh, so you're a Biology major -- you must be going into nursing?"
HELL FUCKING NO. Blood is gross, I do not want to wipe people's butts, and I have zero bedside manner or interest in clinical anything. Or even interest in general macro-level biology. Cells and molecules, please.
This kid assumed I was going to be a nurse, because I'm a girl and majoring in biology. If I was a guy, 99.99999% chance he would have asked if I was going to be a doctor.
Things like that add up. They make you question yourself. Look up
imposter syndrome.
For example, I don't mean to be conceited, but I score very very highly on all the typical measures of intelligence/academic ability (like 99.9th percentile). This has been the case since I was very young. I was always told I was bossy and intense and bitchy; I dumbed down my academic ability/achievements when I got to the age where I started caring what people thought of me. I'm sort of back on track now, in that I'm actually applying myself to academics and obviously considering several high-achieving careers. But I am
constantly questioning my ability to actually hack it in the academic world, and constantly worrying about getting a PhD and ending up stuck in adjunct hell. I hate teaching, I don't want to be an adjunct, I want to do research on a very specific topic that isn't hugely popular. The chances of being able to do that in industry or government are small, and so anything other than tenure-track academia is going to feel like a failure to me. Based on my scores, past achievements, etc etc, there is no logical reason that I shouldn't be feeling like I could do anything I wanted. But, I still worry and question myself. I do not see the same level of self-doubt in my male classmates, but I do see it in many of the females.
This is why we get frustrated when you try to create a false equivalency between systematic gender inequality and societal gender stereotypes. They are related, but they are not the same.