THE ROLE OF SEX AND GENDER IDENTIFICATION IN STEM FACULTY'S WORK-RELATED STRESS AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

摘要

Our research examines the role of sex and gender identification in the work-related stress and emotional well-being of faculty in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and non-STEM disciplines. Stereotypes of male superiority in STEM abound, and identifying strongly with gender may make women more susceptible to the consequences of this bias. We hypothesized that distancing from gender would be associated with higher well-being for women faculty in STEM. As predicted, the less gender-identified women faculty in STEM were, the better their emotional well-being and the less work-related stress they reported. These relationships were not observed for women in non-STEM disciplines. Our results suggest that gender identification is an important predictor of women's well-being in STEM and may serve as a barrier for the retention of highly gender-identified women in these fields.