Sexual Normativeness of Students' Academic Preparation and Careers in Change

• Published in: Historical social research (Köln) Vol. 25; no. 2; pp. 23 - 53
• Main Authors: Costas, Ilse, Ross, Bettina, Suchi, Stefan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: German
• Published: 01-01-2000
• Subjects: College Majors; College Students; Females; Germany; Mathematics; Science; Sex; Sex Stereotypes; Social Constructionism
• ISSN: 0172-6404

Common wisdom holds that, traditionally, women have entered some academic fields, such as the humanities, & avoided others, eg, physics or mathematics. Developments in Germany up to the 1930s contradict this assumption: In the natural sciences & mathematics, the percentage of female students was higher than the average percentage of female students in all other academic fields. What contributed to this unexpected distribution? How can we explain the discontinuities in the long-term developments of female students' relative frequencies in specific academic subjects? Some answers to these questions are discussed in this study, based on results of a current research project financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The basic assumptions refer to the theory of "doing gender": This theory claims that what is characterized as typically male or female is historically variable & constructed according to specific cultural & social contexts. Thus essentialism is negated. Educational statistics from German universities, subjected to loglinear analysis, & data from other sources show interrelated effects of the development of girls' secondary schools, their preparations for university studies, chances in the labor market, & the social status of various subjects of study & professional careers. New academic fields like social science & economics become gendered very quickly, resulting in segregation of careers by sex. The cultural & educational system & even official recommendations constructed gender stereotypes of professions. These stereotypes increasingly influenced female pupils in their career patterns during the 1930s. At that time employment chances in some professions were drastically reduced, & administrative restrictions against women were introduced. This occurred even before the Nazis seized power. 9 Figures, 41 References. Adapted from the source document.