Gender Representations of Scientists

Images of scientists in the mass media are a major source of information for popular views of scientists. People are much more likely to see scientists on television and in films or read about scientists in newspapers and magazines than they are to have direct interactions with actual working scientists. Subse quently, the ways in which scientists are portrayed in the mass media often leave lasting impressions on people's views of science and scientists. Media images of scientists, particularly those found in television programming, have been found to be one of the primary sources of information about scientists for adults as well as for children and adolescents.

Gender representations of scientists in the mass media convey and reinforce cultural beliefs and expectations about scientists that influence people's perceptions of the role of men and women in the scientific, engineering, and technical (SET) workforce. Science communication researchers have used both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, most often content analysis, textual analysis, and thematic analysis, to examine gender representations of scientists in a variety of mass media, including television programs, films, newspapers, magazines, books, and Web sites. Research in science communication often investigates gender [Page 323]representations by comparing differences in the number of male and female scientists presented in media content and also by documenting specific variations in the depictions of male and female scientists.

Images of male scientists and engineers have dominated the mass media in the United States in both past and contemporary images. The number of media images of male scientists is not only greater than the number of media images of female scientists in most media content, but more screen time and more print space have been devoted to male scientists. The typical media image of a scientist is that of an adult, white male who wears a laboratory coat or scientific apparel and directs a team of subordinate research assistants. Media images of scientists that show male scientists more frequently and in positions of high status in the scientific workforce reinforce the long-standing gender stereotype of science as a male domain or a profession more appropriate for men. While the percentage of male scientists shown in media content mirrors the greater percentage of males in the actual U.S. scientific and technological workforce, researchers argue that presenting more female scientists and showing them more often in the mass media is critical for presenting a more balanced vision of the SET workforce and for altering gender-stereotyped values in society.

The greater frequency of images of male scientists over female scientists has been documented in a variety of media. Research by Marcel C. LaFollette on U.S. magazines from 1910 to 1950 found male scientists appeared much more often than female scientists as the focus of biographies and interviews. Researcher Nancy Signorielli noted in her study of men and women in occupations in the U.S. workforce in primetime network television dramas in the 1980s that male scientists outnumbered female scientists by three to one. Elfriede Fursich and E. P. Lester's analysis of the New York Times' “Scientist at Work” columns noted that only 2 of the 11 scientists profiled were female scientists.

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