Epistemology of Ignorance and Women and STEM

Discussion Questions Epistemology of Ignorance and Women and STEM

1. What is meant by the phrase “epistemology of ignorance”? What is meant by the “variability hypothesis”? How is the “variability hypothesis” an example of a concept best understood by the “epistemology of ignorance”? (Fehr) Why do you think the “variability hypothesis” held sway so long even in the face of evidence to the contrary? (Fehr)
 The epistemology of ignorance is one of the philosophical approaches with regards to the carelessness philosophical problem of ignorance. It is a cutting-edge collection framed on the Charles Mill’s claim that racism mainly engages an inverted epistemology. 
Variability hypothesis is mainly the hypothesis that shows that males exhibit greater variability traits than the females actually do. Carla Fehr examined thoroughly the “epistemology of ignorance” that is mainly the science of not being aware of something to explain the endurance of doctrines with no scientific basis but Fehr’s main focus was on “variability hypothesis” the declaration a high range of human attributes. The variability hypothesis held strong influence so long because of the male as the illustrative of the norm. 

 

 2. What are “gender schemas” and how do they help us to understand the lack of women in many professions? What is the relationship between “competence” and gender? How are women viewed if they are shown to be just as competent as a man on the job? Why does this matter? (Valian) 
Gender schemas are mainly the theory that came into existence in the year 1981 by Sandra Bem and it is the cognitive theory that analyzes how individuals became gendered in the society in which we all live in and how the characteristics that are sex-linked are transmitted and maintained to the other people of a culture. It has been observed that the occupations and the people are multidimensional but the gender schemas tend to simplify the both. It mainly clarifies the professions that suitable for men and male as the most suitable for any type of professions. On the other hand, it has been witnessed that in all across the globe every high-paying and prestigious profession is dominated by the men so it is needless to say that there is lack of women in most of the profession. The relationship between the gender and competence is quite complicated as it is assumed that men are more competent than the women in most of the jobs. If women are showed to be equally competent as the men in the job then most of the men feel it is unfair and they also think that women may not handle the job as the men do. It matters because according to Valian men are overrated and women are quite underrated even in the modern society (Easterly and Ricard, 2011). 

 

3. Where do “gender schemas” come from? What can be done to reduce their impact? (Valian)
The gender schemas mainly came into existence when the psychology surrounding the gender was intensely picking up interest as more and more females were coming in the field of academics. As per the Valian, gender schemas are viewed as the main culprit for slowing down the career of a woman and it can be reduced if gender equity is practiced more and more as it will maximize the chances of hiring the best candidate regardless of the gender (Rudman and Glick, 2012). 

 

4. What question was Lawrence Summers trying to answer in his talk before the NBER in 2005? (Summers)
The questions that Lawrence Summers were trying to answer in his talk before the NBER in 2005 were the issue circulating the engineering and science. He observed that more than twenty to twenty-five years the number of women increased in the graduate school and the field of science and he was also trying to answer the challenge and issues in women’s are facing in tenured position both in engineering and science at top research institutions and universities 

 

5. What three possible explanations for the paucity of women in science and engineering in elite institutions did he proffer?  Which of these three did he think explained most of the problem and why? (Summers)
The three possible explanations for the paucity of women in the engineering and science in the elite institutions that are proffered by Lawrence Summers are: Firstly, he tried to explain through the first hypothesis that is the role of the women in the science and engineering through the high-powered job hypothesis. Secondly, another hypothesis was the various availability of aptitude at the high end. Lastly, the last hypothesis of summers was on the patterns of discrimination and different socialization. According to summers, he thought explained the most of the problems was the high-powered job hypothesis because the differing variances explain a legitimate amount of this problem.  

 

 6. What evidence did Lawrence Summers offer to support his views about the reasons for the lack of women in science and engineering? (Summers)
The evidence Lawrence Summers offered to support his views about the reasons for the lack of women in the science and engineering stream was due to the biological differences and he also said that the number of jobs that are offered to the females has fallen from 36% to 13% because men tend to outperform women in the science and the math field (Ong, 2005). 

 

7. How would you explain the lack of women in science and engineering at prestigious institutions? 
Personally, I feel there is a lack of women in the science and engineering field because of the choice of women having family more than the gender biases because some of the leading studies have highlighted the fact that women have penalties in earnings in science if they form a family. 

 

8. When you think about applying for jobs, do you think it is useful to consider the gender make-up of the organization? What other factors do you think might reflect a gender friendly environment?
When an individual is applying for a job even it in the developed nations it is useful to consider the fact of gender-makeup-organizations. The factors that reflect the gender friendly environment in a workplace are- Diversity, gender equity, supervising and monitoring continuously for ensuring economic rights of the women, and safety. 
 

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References

Easterly, D. M., and Ricard, C. S. (2011). Conscious Efforts to End Unconscious Bias: Why Women Leave Academic Research. Journal of Research Administration, 42(1), 61-73.
Ong, Maria. "Body projects of young women of color in physics: Intersections of gender, race, and science." Social problems 52.4 (2005): 593-617.
Rudman, L. A., and Glick, P. (2012). The social psychology of gender: How power and intimacy shape gender relations. New York: Guilford Press.

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