SBP: Collaborative Research: A Two-Part Project Examining Team Discrimination by Gender in STEM teams and a Way Forward

尽管性别问题在STEM中普遍存在（即，科学、技术、工程和数学）职业中，妇女在工程领域的代表性最低。对妇女参与工程的人数较少的各种原因进行了调查，如工资和晋升机会以及与家庭有关的限制。工作场所歧视的作用也得到了关注，因为STEM领域的女性比非STEM学科的女性遭受歧视的比例更高。然而，很少有研究人员将注意力集中在女性在工程领域的日常经历如何促进或阻碍歧视行为上。虽然许多现有的研究工作场所的歧视都集中在个人或组织，我们认为，团队在工程女性的经验发挥了被忽视的作用。以团队为中心的方法，我们研究人际歧视及其对个人和团队成果的多层次涟漪影响。本项目旨在完成三个高级别目标。我们的第一个目标是确定工程团队的经验是否以及如何因性别而异，特别是在团队歧视方面。作为第二个目标，我们将研究团队歧视对工程团队成果的影响（例如，创造力）。最后，我们的第三个目标是研究团队歧视对个人层面的结果，特别是女性工程师的职业轨迹的影响。为了有效地实现既定目标，我们将采用互补的方法进行两项主要研究。我们将开始对STEM团队中的歧视进行多层次的纵向检查，特别是与女性团队成员有关的歧视。这第一项研究将解决有关缺乏纵向，团队层面的数据的关注，并提供关于一个研究不足的现象，团队歧视的见解。我们随后进行了一项经验抽样研究，研究团队对在STEM领域工作的女性的歧视，以及这种情况在日常生活和长期职业抱负和决策中的影响。该项目的最终成果将使人们更好地了解团队经验如何塑造STEM领域女性的职业道路，总体目标是留住STEM领域的女性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Though gender issues are pervasive throughout STEM (i.e., science, technology, engineering, and math) careers, representation of women is lowest in engineering. A myriad of reasons for low female participation in engineering have been investigated, such as pay and promotion opportunities and family-related constraints. Attention has also been given to the role of workplace discrimination, as women in STEM experience discrimination at higher rates than women in non-STEM disciplines. However, few researchers have focused their attention on how the day-to-day experiences of women in engineering might facilitate or impede discriminatory behavior. While many of the existing studies on workplace discrimination have focused on the individual or the organization, we argue that teams play an overlooked role in women's experiences in engineering. Taking a team-centric approach, we examine interpersonal discrimination and its multi-level ripple impact on both individual and team outcomes. The current project is designed to complete three high-level objectives. Our first objective is to identify whether and how engineering team experiences differ by gender, specifically in relation to team discrimination. As a second objective, we will examine the effect team discrimination has on engineering team outcomes (e.g., performance, creativity). Finally, our third objective is to examine the impact team discrimination has on individual-level outcomes and specifically the career trajectory of female engineers. To effectively carry out the stated objectives, we will use complementary methods to conduct two primary studies. We will begin with a multilevel, longitudinal examination of discrimination in STEM teams, specifically in relation to female team members. This first study will address the concern regarding a lack of longitudinal, team-level data and provide insight regarding an understudied phenomenon, team discrimination. We follow with an experience sampling study examining team discrimination toward females working within the STEM field and the effects of such occurrences throughout their daily lives and long-term career aspirations and decisions. The culmination of this program will provide a greater understanding of how team experiences shape the career path for women in STEM, with the overall goal of retaining women in STEM careers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.