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Women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in U.S. academic science and engineering

Concealable stigmatized identities (CSIs) are hidden identities that carry negative stereotypes and can result in a loss of social status if revealed. Instructors often choose to conceal these CSIs due to anticipated negative student reactions, yet revealing CSIs can have a positive impact on underg...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Busch, Carly A., Cooper, Katelyn M., Brownell, Sara E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10355415/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37467167
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287795
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author Busch, Carly A.
Cooper, Katelyn M.
Brownell, Sara E.
author_facet Busch, Carly A.
Cooper, Katelyn M.
Brownell, Sara E.
author_sort Busch, Carly A.
collection PubMed
description Concealable stigmatized identities (CSIs) are hidden identities that carry negative stereotypes and can result in a loss of social status if revealed. Instructors often choose to conceal these CSIs due to anticipated negative student reactions, yet revealing CSIs can have a positive impact on undergraduates. Women are generally more likely to reveal personal aspects about themselves in social situations, but may face greater consequences for revealing a stigmatized identity to students given their already marginalized position in academic science and engineering. Therefore, in this study, we were interested in understanding to what extent there are differences between men and women science and engineering instructors in (i) the representation of CSIs, (ii) their decisions to reveal CSIs to undergraduates in their classes, and (iii) their perceived stigma of CSIs. Based on a national survey of over 2,000 instructors in science and engineering from very high research activity doctoral institutions, we found that women were more likely than men to report having depression, anxiety, or a disability. Of instructors who held CSIs, women had 1.5x higher odds than men of revealing their CSIs to some undergraduates compared to no undergraduates and perceived greater stigma associated with all CSIs. Despite perceiving greater stigma associated with concealable stigmatized identities, women are more likely to reveal their CSIs to college science and engineering students, leading the way to a more diverse and inclusive scientific community by demonstrating themselves as role models for these identities.
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spelling pubmed-103554152023-07-20 Women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in U.S. academic science and engineering Busch, Carly A. Cooper, Katelyn M. Brownell, Sara E. PLoS One Research Article Concealable stigmatized identities (CSIs) are hidden identities that carry negative stereotypes and can result in a loss of social status if revealed. Instructors often choose to conceal these CSIs due to anticipated negative student reactions, yet revealing CSIs can have a positive impact on undergraduates. Women are generally more likely to reveal personal aspects about themselves in social situations, but may face greater consequences for revealing a stigmatized identity to students given their already marginalized position in academic science and engineering. Therefore, in this study, we were interested in understanding to what extent there are differences between men and women science and engineering instructors in (i) the representation of CSIs, (ii) their decisions to reveal CSIs to undergraduates in their classes, and (iii) their perceived stigma of CSIs. Based on a national survey of over 2,000 instructors in science and engineering from very high research activity doctoral institutions, we found that women were more likely than men to report having depression, anxiety, or a disability. Of instructors who held CSIs, women had 1.5x higher odds than men of revealing their CSIs to some undergraduates compared to no undergraduates and perceived greater stigma associated with all CSIs. Despite perceiving greater stigma associated with concealable stigmatized identities, women are more likely to reveal their CSIs to college science and engineering students, leading the way to a more diverse and inclusive scientific community by demonstrating themselves as role models for these identities. Public Library of Science 2023-07-19 /pmc/articles/PMC10355415/ /pubmed/37467167 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287795 Text en © 2023 Busch et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Busch, Carly A.
Cooper, Katelyn M.
Brownell, Sara E.
Women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in U.S. academic science and engineering
title Women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in U.S. academic science and engineering
title_full Women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in U.S. academic science and engineering
title_fullStr Women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in U.S. academic science and engineering
title_full_unstemmed Women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in U.S. academic science and engineering
title_short Women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in U.S. academic science and engineering
title_sort women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in u.s. academic science and engineering
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10355415/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37467167
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287795
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