Beyond Gender - Intersectional Identities as a Lens to Examining Women’s (Non-) Participation in Science

Name of the Project

Beyond Gender - Intersectional Identities as a Lens to Examining Women’s (Non-) Participation in Science

Collaborators/Participants

Dr. Lucy Avraamidou (l.avraamidou@rug.nl)

What are you currently working on? And how is a gender and diversity perspective important in your research?

Framed within the construct of science identity, this project presents a qualitative multiple-case study on the under-representation of women in scientific careers. Grounded within a combined theoretical framework of intersectionality, identity, and narrative, the project aims at examining the lived experiences and educational pathways of eight purposefully selected female scientists who work in various STEM-related fields in the Netherlands. In exploring the participants’ life histories, I pay special attention to the obstacles and barriers they faced throughout their studies and careers. The design of the study is situated within literature that has used gender as a theoretical construct to examine the under-representation of women in science, which, however, as I argue, provides a limited and single-sided understanding of why women are underrepresented in the sciences. The analysis of the participants’ life-histories in relation to science are expected to produce knowledge that that can be used as input for: (a) carrying out large-scale empirical research; (b) rethinking institutional change through intersectionality; and, (c) designing inclusive and equitable workplaces. From a theoretical perspective, the goal of this project is to put an argument forward about the use of relational identities and intersectionality as a lens to examining women’s career trajectories in STEM. Such a lens provides a more comprehensive, diverse, and multidimensional frame while it pays attention to the ways in which culture, religion, ethnic status, class, family status, sexuality, and race, intersect with science identity. This deeper and comprehensive understanding of how different identities, social markers, and life-experiences might influence women’s science career trajectories allows us to shift the focus away from a deficit model where gender alone is considered.