ISBN:
9780226820149
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (240 p.)
,
15 line drawings, 9 tables
DDC:
306.45
Keywords:
College teachers Attitudes
;
Discrimination in higher education
;
Science teachers Attitudes
;
Science Social aspects
;
Scientists Rating of
;
Scientists Attitudes
;
Work-life balance
;
EDUCATION / General
Abstract:
An incisive study showing how cultural ideas of merit in academic science produce unfair and unequal outcomes. In Misconceiving Merit, sociologists Mary Blair-Loy and Erin A. Cech uncover the cultural foundations of a paradox. On one hand, academic science, engineering, and math revere meritocracy, a system that recognizes and rewards those with the greatest talent and dedication. At the same time, women and some racial and sexual minorities remain underrepresented and often feel unwelcome and devalued in STEM. How can academic science, which so highly values meritocracy and objectivity, produce these unequal outcomes? Blair-Loy and Cech studied more than five hundred STEM professors at a top research university to reveal how unequal and unfair outcomes can emerge alongside commitments to objectivity and excellence. The authors find that academic STEM harbors dominant cultural beliefs that not only perpetuate the mistreatment of scientists from underrepresented groups but hinder innovation. Underrepresented groups are often seen as less fully embodying merit compared to equally productive white and Asian heterosexual men, and the negative consequences of this misjudgment persist regardless of professors’ actual academic productivity. Misconceiving Merit is filled with insights for higher education administrators working toward greater equity as well as for scientists and engineers striving to change entrenched patterns of inequality in STEM
Note:
Frontmatter
,
Contents
,
Tables and Figures
,
One. Misperceiving Merit, Excellence, and Devotion in Academic STEM
,
Two. The Cultural Construction of Merit in Academic STEM
,
Three. The Work Devotion Schema and Its Consequences
,
Four. Mismeasuring Merit: The Schema of Scientific Excellence as a Yardstick of Merit
,
Five. Defending the Schema of Scientific Excellence, Defending Inequality
,
Six. The Moralization of Merit: Consequences for Scientists and Science
,
Acknowledgments
,
Appendix
,
Notes
,
References
,
Index
,
In English
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