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Stereotypes In STEM

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Studies have shown that there is a relationship between the media and the issues of women in STEM. These articles look at how the media creates an image of scientists on the basis of stereotypes and the gender gap. All these different shows take on the topic in certain ways that may put women studying STEM in either a positive or negative light. However, they do all focus on the idea of making these field gender inclusive. Men want what was once theirs to stay theirs, except society has grown to be more accepting of woman in these fields. This raises the question of where are all the women in STEM fields. There seems to be interest, but the number of women who actually pursue these fields is really low. Other similar research examines the numerous …show more content…
These authors impose an argument that women scientists should be featured more and have a lab of her own. There really is a gap between the scientific competence of men and women in shows such as Doctor Who, Star Trek, and science programs that lack the presence of women. For a very long time Star trek never put a female scientist as an important character, instead were pushed aside, according to this feminist frame analysis written by Deegan, she looks at how over the years increased women in a scientific role. Fans get excited that Star Trek would even mention a female scientist, since it is so rare. If a popular media show like Star Trek projects woman as just sex objects in a patriarchal society, people would assume they are not fit to run the scientific world (Deegan 1983). Doctor Who, looks at scientific competence of the female characters in the show. The article shows how women aren't as smart as the male characters who play the doctor. Why this is why it is, is beyond comprehension of viewers around the world. Except, this show has been popular over the past years and no one complains, because they put the woman in their place. In shows like Star Trek that has to do with science there might also be fictional scientific labs, what I mean by this is the location the scientists do their work. When it comes to scientific labs the work that they do is not even real science, because it is fictional per say. A lot of times if they have science labs on TV it'll be the same one male scientist sitting in a lab having brilliant breakthroughs. This goes back to the scientific competence that media claims that women just do not

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