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Femininities in STEM: Outsiders Within

Author

Listed:
  • Pat O’Connor

    (University of Limerick, Ireland; University College Dublin, Ireland)

  • Clare O’Hagan

    (University of Limerick, Ireland)

  • Breda Gray

    (University of Limerick, Ireland)

Abstract

This article describes a typological framework with axes relating to career and (non-work) relationship commitment to show how a specific cohort of women enact femininity(ies) in the context of the institutionalised practices that define science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as a masculine domain. Based on the accounts of 25 women in such disciplines in an Irish university, four types are identified: careerist femininity; individualised femininity; vocational femininity; and family-oriented femininity. All of these are constituted in relation to the meanings attached to the masculinist STEM career which performatively render women outsiders. The typology moves beyond the career/paid work and work/life dichotomies to encompass both the re-envisioning of career as vocation (Type 3) and the development of a highly individualised lifestyle orientation based on a high commitment to both (Type 2). It points to the variation, complexity and contradictions in how women do femininities in the academic STEM environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Pat O’Connor & Clare O’Hagan & Breda Gray, 2018. "Femininities in STEM: Outsiders Within," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(2), pages 312-329, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:32:y:2018:i:2:p:312-329
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017017714198
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