6 - Asian Women Scientists on the Move

Summary

This chapter focuses on the gendered experiences of Asian women scientists drawing from interviews with forty such scientists from China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore and Taiwan. It outlines their experiences as they decide to pursue a graduate education, postdoctoral training, and subsequently a career in science. It clarifies why they deemed Western countries to be more accepting of women scientists, though certainly not discrimination free. The chapter shows that when these women began shifting their status from “student of science” to “practitioner of science,” they began encountering more gendered prejudice. The idea of a “gender shock” is introduced, which captures the experience of entering a social and symbolic space where the attitudes, norms and beliefs surrounding one’s gender are unexpected in either a positive or negative way. The corrective actions taken in response to gendered social forces are termed “gender compromises,” a settling for a less-than-preferred course of action in one life domain to satisfy gender pressures in another life domain. However, gender compromises do not always involve these women giving up career ambitions for the sake of family.