I stand corrected.\u00a0 THIS is my favorite paper that we have read \u2013 while some parts were a little \u201ciffy\u201d (looking at you, dated gender-based career example on page 150) like all good friends, there are some things we can overlook to keep a good friendship.\u00a0 Moreover, I believe it is fair to say Chapter 11, \u201cThe Seeds of Career Choices:\u00a0 Prenatal Sex Hormone Effects on Psychological Sex Differences,\u201d written by Sheri A. Berenbaum and Susan Resnick is quite largely responsible for shaping my own opinion on why there aren\u2019t more women in science.<\/p>\n
Berenbaum and Resnick take on tough topics, such as sex hormones, prenatal exposure, CAH, what is SO important about androgens, that we continually read throughout this compilation of papers, but then actually support their claims with examples and data. \u00a0(What a novel idea!)\u00a0 They argue three main cases.\u00a0 (1) Sex hormones may uphold sex differences in career choice, but people often misunderstand how biology may<\/em> affect<\/em> behavior which may lead to career choices, and not be the direct link to those choices. (2) The famous sex hormone, androgen, (or infamous, depending on if you are like me and were tired of hearing about how many great things your friend\u2019s friend androgen does without ever having been properly introduced) does have a link to biological aspects such as increased spatial ability, childhood activity interests, and personal characteristics and social interactions.\u00a0 However, this sex hormone is just the tip of the iceberg, rather social interactions are what really lie below the surface and are the true driving force behind \u201clong-lasting psychological effects\u201d which may influence career choices.\u00a0 (3) Androgen may have a specific initial effect on behavior, but the environment shapes and constantly effects behavior.\u00a0 The days of nature versus<\/em> nurture are over and are replaced with nature via<\/em> nurture.\u00a0 Biology isn\u2019t as tough as it thinks it is.<\/p>\n Like in Melissa Hines\u2019 article, Berenbaum and Resnick also criticize their example data and own conclusions.\u00a0 On page 149, they include a study where some females with CAH perform better on spatial tests than females without CAH.\u00a0 However, \u201cthere are some inconsistencies in results\u201d due to the lack in number of females with CAH.\u00a0 You can\u2019t experiment on the same, small group to get the most valid results.\u00a0 Again on page 151, they debunk another experiment testing the effects of androgens, for they say there are too many other factors that may be contributing to results other than solely androgens.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that the case with most cognitive experiments?\u00a0 What I derived from Hines was kind of a throw in the towel and take a more strained philosophical approach.\u00a0 What I find after reading Berenbaum and Resnick\u2019s pieces is I guess it is better that the answer to why there aren\u2019t more women in science can be explained with PSYCHOLOGY (big letters and all).\u00a0 The so-called soft science may prove to be more valid than the biological experiments that drive this debate in circles.\u00a0 Let\u2019s hear it for Psychology and Sociology, the underdogs.\u00a0 But, concluding like a true feel-good book with happy endings and hope, the ultimate answer to why there aren\u2019t more women in science may still be out there\u2026<\/p>\n All this time reading through these papers, I\u2019ve felt like I have been a part of a conversation where people would talk amongst themselves, excluding me.\u00a0 Then, Dr. Berenbaum and Dr. Resnick lean over and whisper what everyone else is talking about to fill me in.\u00a0 Much appreciated, Sheri and Susan! \u00a0My opinion that has taken many shapes and sizes now rests squarely in the mold of their thesis:\u00a0 \u201csex-related career choices and outcomes arise through the mediating and moderating effects of socialization on sex-hormone-influenced individual differences in behavioral development\u201d (148).\u00a0 They really hit the nail on the head with this one and their thesis seems like a Frankenstein masterpiece of my thoughts that I couldn\u2019t quite stitch together myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I stand corrected.\u00a0 THIS is my favorite paper that we have read \u2013 while some parts were a little \u201ciffy\u201d (looking at you, dated gender-based career example on page 150) like all good friends, there are some things we can overlook to keep a good f…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29790,29798],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2015","category-student-blogs","column","twocol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1190,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions\/1190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswomeninscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}