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College Students’ Views of Work–Life Balance in STEM Research Careers: Addressing Negative Preconceptions

In career discussions, female undergraduates said that if they were to attend graduate school in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and were to follow a career based on their research training, they would have to give up having a family. A subsequent survey showed that many stu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tan-Wilson, Anna, Stamp, Nancy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4710394/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26163564
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.14-11-0210
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author Tan-Wilson, Anna
Stamp, Nancy
author_facet Tan-Wilson, Anna
Stamp, Nancy
author_sort Tan-Wilson, Anna
collection PubMed
description In career discussions, female undergraduates said that if they were to attend graduate school in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and were to follow a career based on their research training, they would have to give up having a family. A subsequent survey showed that many students, both men and women, thought work–life balance would be more difficult to achieve in a STEM research path than in other professions they were considering. Their views of STEM research being less family-friendly were more pronounced on issues of parental leaves and caring for children than finding a spouse/partner and landing two jobs in the same locality. To provide role models of work–life balance in STEM professions, we convened panels of dual-career couples who described how they worked together to raise their children while advancing their scientific careers. Our selection of panelists and topics of discussion were based on findings of social science research on work–life balance. On a survey with the same questions administered afterward, the changes in paired responses of male and female students with respect to all four issues showed a significant shift toward thinking that a research-based STEM career would be no more difficult than other careers they were considering.
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spelling pubmed-47103942016-01-13 College Students’ Views of Work–Life Balance in STEM Research Careers: Addressing Negative Preconceptions Tan-Wilson, Anna Stamp, Nancy CBE Life Sci Educ Essay In career discussions, female undergraduates said that if they were to attend graduate school in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and were to follow a career based on their research training, they would have to give up having a family. A subsequent survey showed that many students, both men and women, thought work–life balance would be more difficult to achieve in a STEM research path than in other professions they were considering. Their views of STEM research being less family-friendly were more pronounced on issues of parental leaves and caring for children than finding a spouse/partner and landing two jobs in the same locality. To provide role models of work–life balance in STEM professions, we convened panels of dual-career couples who described how they worked together to raise their children while advancing their scientific careers. Our selection of panelists and topics of discussion were based on findings of social science research on work–life balance. On a survey with the same questions administered afterward, the changes in paired responses of male and female students with respect to all four issues showed a significant shift toward thinking that a research-based STEM career would be no more difficult than other careers they were considering. American Society for Cell Biology 2015-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC4710394/ /pubmed/26163564 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.14-11-0210 Text en © 2015 A. Tan-Wilson and N. Stamp. et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2015 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0). “ASCB®”and “The American Society for Cell Biology ®” are regis-tered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology.
spellingShingle Essay
Tan-Wilson, Anna
Stamp, Nancy
College Students’ Views of Work–Life Balance in STEM Research Careers: Addressing Negative Preconceptions
title College Students’ Views of Work–Life Balance in STEM Research Careers: Addressing Negative Preconceptions
title_full College Students’ Views of Work–Life Balance in STEM Research Careers: Addressing Negative Preconceptions
title_fullStr College Students’ Views of Work–Life Balance in STEM Research Careers: Addressing Negative Preconceptions
title_full_unstemmed College Students’ Views of Work–Life Balance in STEM Research Careers: Addressing Negative Preconceptions
title_short College Students’ Views of Work–Life Balance in STEM Research Careers: Addressing Negative Preconceptions
title_sort college students’ views of work–life balance in stem research careers: addressing negative preconceptions
topic Essay
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4710394/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26163564
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.14-11-0210
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