“Development of Women in STEM into the 21st Century” Interview with V. C., HIST 150 Spring 2021, Conducted by Kailey Carvajal, February 27, 2021

Overview to Interview:

This interview was conducted with my older sister, V.C., about her experience as a young woman in STEM in the 21st century. We discussed how she became interested in her chosen field of study, astrophysics, and her journey up to now, where she is now working on her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona. In addition to discussing what she has done, we talked about things that she has experienced as a result of being a female in a male-dominated field. Research has shown found a large difference in the number of women in STEM when compared to men, a ratio of 28:72 respectively. There is also a large number of reports of sexual harassment and discrimination against women in STEM. My sister and I discussed her experiences of dealing with discrimination in her own life, as well as how its persistence in her field has impacted her future opportunities. Something that is unique about my sister’s story is her relationship with her boyfriend, and we discussed this and how it contrasts against what history has shown us as a normal relationship. One of the main themes my sister and I wanted to address was the need to reach out to girls in STEM at a young age and provide them with female role models to look up to. Research has shown that many young girls make the decision to not pursue STEM because they feel like they will not be supported and there is no one to look up to, and my sister made the powerful statement that she needs to become a role model for them. At the end of the interview, my sister acknowledged that the treatment of women in STEM has come a long way, but there is still much more that needs to be done to support them.

Biography:

V.C. was born in Chapel Hill, NC, and moved to Williamsburg, VA when she was five. She expressed an interest in space when she was only in elementary school. When she was in her junior year of high school, she began attending the Governor’s School of Science and Technology in addition to attending her public high school and graduated at the top of her class in 2016. She attended the University of Maryland at College Park for four years, earning her degrees in Astronomy and Physics, as well as a minor in Rhetoric. She has interned at a variety of places, including NASA and the University of Utah, and gave a presentation at a AAS conference in Hawaii. She graduated from the University of Maryland in 2020 and has started to work on her Masters and Ph. D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Arizona.

Transcript:

Kailey Carvajal 0:01
Okay, we’re recording now.

Okay, so can you describe what it is that you’re studying for us?

V. C. 0:08
Um, I’m studying astrophysics. Um, I guess technically, it’s Astronomy and Astrophysics in the department, although there really isn’t much of a distinction. Do you want like, what my specific research is? Or…?

Kailey Carvajal 0:24
Yeah, sure.

V. C. 0:25
Okay. Um, I am studying active galactic nuclei, which are the supermassive black holes at centers of galaxies, which are actively eating matter right now. Um, yeah, I’m just studying what the environment around them is like, what the accretion disks and all the other stuff around the black hole looks like and also trying to figure out some properties of the black holes themselves.

Kailey Carvajal 0:54
Oh, um, when did you first, like, sort of become interested in studying astronomy?

V. C. 1:00
Um, I always thought space was cool. Um I think everyone thinks that space is cool. Um I think I first started wanting to be an astronomer uh, back in like, oh, like fifth grade, or so. Um, I was kind of in that phase for like, you know, every few months, I wanted to be something else. I think I wanted to be an archaeologist and a paleontologist and marine biologist and like, basically anything ending with -ist. And like- [laugh]

Kailey Carvajal 1:29
Very STEM focused.

V. C. 1:31
Very, very STEM focused um. But I think once I finally found astronomy, there was just something about it that really just stuck with me, and after that, you know, I considered other things but it always came back to astronomy.

Kailey Carvajal 1:47
Yeah, I remember your yearbook from like fifth grade, they [the teachers] asked all the fifth graders what they want it to be and yours, was wasn’t you want to study black holes or the galaxy?

V. C. 1:55
Yeah. I want to be a scientist who studies black holes and the Bermuda Triangle. That’s exactly what it said.

Kailey Carvajal 2:01
Okay, you know [laugh]

V. C. 2:02
I was really on like a hole kick for like, the universe’s mysteries and to fifth grade me the Bermuda Triangle was like right up there with black holes. [both laugh]

Kailey Carvajal 2:13
Um, so when I was conducting research prior to this interview, one of the articles noticed that um many young girls don’t pursue STEM because they don’t have any female role models to look up to. Um, were there any females that you can recall looking up to um and are there any now or was it mostly male dominated?

V. C. 2:34
It was definitely mostly male dominated and like male figureheads when I was growing up. Um, I, I don’t want to say I like didn’t care that there weren’t any female role models, because it definitely, like, did like annoy me that there weren’t as many, like, notable female astronomers. Or rather, that there were but no one talked about them. Um, but I didn’t really like let that deter me because I was just like, “Okay, well, then I guess I’ll just have to become one myself, I guess.”

Kailey Carvajal 3:08
Mm hm

V. C. 3:09
Um, now that I’m like, in astronomy, I’m definitely, like, have a lot of female role models. Um, not necessarily ones that are like, you know, super famous publicly or anything like that, but just like on a personal level, like, just incredibly talented women that I see, like, just on a day to day basis. And, you know, they, they’re just what I aspire to be.

Kailey Carvajal 3:36
So you would say like having a relationship with a female has definitely been beneficial to you, as you’ve been pursuing your Ph.D.?

V. C. 3:43
Oh, yeah, for sure. Um, no, it’s just so nice to be able to, like, sit down and talk with my current research advisor and like, have her mention her kids, like, who are like playing in the background or something like that, or like, sometimes our kids will, like, join in on the research meetings and just like, sit there on her lap, and it’s just like this sweetest thing. And it’s also like, nice to know that it’s a career in which you can have like a healthy work life balance if you find the right environment, so.

Kailey Carvajal 4:14
Mm hm. Um, so prior to pursuing your undergraduate degree, you attended both the Governor’s School of Science and Technology and the public school in our area. Um so going through that experience, um how certain were you about what you wanted to do with your future?

V. C. 4:32
I was pretty certain that for at least like the immediate future, I wanted to do astronomy. The Governor’s School, so the track I was on at the Governor’s School was technically an engineering track, but it had an upper level physics option that like I wasn’t able to access that my high school. So I put up with all the engineering stuff so that I could get the physics out of it. Um, and I mean, it definitely taught me I don’t want I do engineering, [laugh] so like, that was nice. Because that was something I was also like kind of considering on this side, like aerospace engineering or something like that. And taking those engineering classes that Gov [Governor’s] school was just definitely, uh, told me I was not cut out to be an engineer [laugh], and that science is definitely the way for me to go. So, yeah, I would say, I definitely knew I wanted to do like more the sciency side and the engineering side of things.

Kailey Carvajal 5:30
And did you feel um, in both the school systems that you were being supported, like, they were encouraging you to, like, pursue STEM in your future?

V. C. 5:39
Oh, yeah, I mean, Governor’s school, obviously was pursuing that, um, that’s kind of like, their whole thing was just turning out as many stem people as they could get. Um, but even Jamestown [public high school] I felt was really supportive. I mean, if the teachers were like, super supportive of everyone at Gov school, you know, even we would like show up to class 30 minutes late [Governor’s School was 45 minutes away. Students spent the 1st half of their day there before going to their public schools], because we got stuck in traffic on the way back, they were still, like, super supportive of us, and like, we were just our own little squad. But like, even before I went to Governor’s school, I mean, you know, it depends on the teachers, but I had some really supportive math teachers, and who like really pushed me to, like, go above and beyond, and like, just really put myself out there and, like, take advantage of these opportunities that I might not have otherwise.

Kailey Carvajal 6:25
Nice. Um, so you’ve done a number of things outside of just going to school and receiving your degree, such as interning with NASA, at the University of Arizona, or University of Utah, and you gave that talk at AAS [American Astronomical Society], and throughout all of your experiences, were there any instances where you felt you had to act differently because you were a female?

V. C. 6:44
[Pause]I don’t know. [Pause] If I did, I wasn’t actively thinking about it. Because I was just acting how I normally do. Um, in all of those environments, there were plenty of women there. I mean, definitely still the minority in the room, but I wasn’t ever, like, the only one in the room. So that was like, helpful. You know, I always at least had like another woman to look at, for help. Um, I don’t know, maybe like dress code. The dress code at NASA was like pretty formal. So actually wear skirts and dresses, which I don’t normally do. But I tried to wear I wore like, nice pants, suits and stuff to which most of the women though seem to do so. I wouldn’t say ever, like felt like I needed to do something different. Because I was a woman. If I ever did, it was more like, because I chose to.

Kailey Carvajal 8:01
That’s how you point out the thing about like having to wear the dresses and stuff. One of the interviews I listened to prior to this, it was this woman who was earning her Ph.D. at the University of Richmond, and she was so excited about the fact that she got to wear pants to work.

V. C. 8:15
[laugh]Yeah, I mean, it was kind of annoying, because it was the middle of summer. But in DC [where the internship occured], which is like super hot and muggy, so like dresses and skirts are actually really nice outside. But it was so cold inside, it was so cold in the air conditioning and so I would just like bring a sweater or a jacket to like drape over my legs when I was working in the office.[slight pause] Which I guess is something that you don’t have to worry about if you’re wearing pants all the time.

Kailey Carvajal 8:40
Mm hm. So while you were studying at the um University of Maryland, what was the gender ratio like in your major specific classes? Um and this is in regards to both the professors and the students.

V. C. 8:54
Okay, let’s see. So it’s important to note that I did two majors, so I had classes in the Astronomy Department and the Physics Department. And I would like to make the distinction that the two departments were very different. Um the Astronomy Department, I had [pause], I only had two female professors, although there were other, like, female professors in the department, they just, like, taught classes that weren’t really my area of, like, interest. Um most of them were like planetary scientists, which I didn’t take classes in, so I had two female teachers um in the Astronomy Department, and I had one female teacher in the Physics Department for a lab. Um but also there were not many female physics professors in the Physics Department. I think there were only, like, two or three.

Kailey Carvajal 9:55
Oh wow.

V. C. 9:57
Yeah. And then class distributions, I’d say… so the intro level classes like a lot of people take um in astronomy, I would say girls were about a third. Um and then an upper level classes, it dropped down to more like a quarter.

Kailey Carvajal 10:16
Mm hm

V. C. 10:17
In the physics department, um I would say it’s more like it started at a quarter and then dropped to like, even less than that in the upper level classes although, I don’t really know. I can’t think of the exact ratio because I always sat in the front of the class and looked behind me, [laughter] but I always knew that it wasn’t, it was like, you know, I could probably count on my fingers the number of like, girls in my upper level classes, so in the physics department, so yeah.

Kailey Carvajal 10:45
Wow. Um, did you kind of, did the girls kind of have a community in that sense? Or?

V. C. 10:51
Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, I made two of my best friends, like, in my first class in astronomy because they were like, “Oh my gosh, it’s another Astro girl, we need to like, catch her right, right away.[laugh] Bring her into this little, like, group that we have.” So yeah, no, there was definitely a community. And I’m sure, I think there was definitely a community with the physics girls, too. I wasn’t like quite as close with them, just because I didn’t have as many classes with them, but I was still, like, decently good friends with most of them, so it was definitely, like, a strong community among the girls.

Kailey Carvajal 11:26
Um, we’ve talked about a list that you had to look out prior to applying to graduate schools. Would you be willing to describe that experience?

V. C. 11:35
Yeah, I mean, it’s not an official list or anything. It’s more, like, just writing down word of mouth stuff into, like, something tangible. Um but it was basically kind of like a warning list. Um it hadn’t been updated in a while when I looked at it. I think the most recent stuff on it was, like, a few years old. Um most of it was warning against, just like, unhealthy, an unhealthy workplace environment, um whether it’s just like, they expect the grad students to work a ridiculous amount during the week, or their qualifying exam to get into the Ph. D program is just ridiculously hard and unfair [most Astrophysics graduate programs are designed to earn both a Master’s and Ph. D. degree but once they finish the work required for their Master’s, the students need to pass a qualifying exam in order to enter the Ph. D. program] , or if it’s a weed out program, or like, all that sort of stuff. But I think there were also a couple of schools where they warned against, like, unfair, like sexual discrimination or harassment in that department too that had kind of just been covered up without being, like, dealt with properly, which was like a very important consideration, because I obviously wouldn’t want to, like, be part of a department that doesn’t really value me, or my educational experience in that way.

Kailey Carvajal 12:44
Thank you for doing that. Um, have your friend ever felt like you were experiencing discrimination because of your gender?

V. C. 12:52
]pause] Yeah, there definitely been a few times. Um [pause], I remember there was a physics lab that I had to do. It was um a circuits lab that I was doing freshman year, and uh I was one of two girls in the class. This is also the one class I had a female professor for, um, and there was only like one other girl in the class with me, and then, like, 15 guys, um and we got randomly assigned lab partners each week. And at this point, we’re about like, two thirds of the way through the semester and I feel like, you know I was struggling a little bit because I was, it’s really a class for sophomores, and I was just, like, advanced enough to be in it as a freshman. So I was struggling like a little bit with the concepts, but I was like, really good at the hands on stuff and like building the circuits and whatnot. And I remember I got paired up with this one guy, who I-he was like, “How are you like, liking this class so far?” at the beginning of the lab. And I was like, “Oh, I’m enjoying it. I mean, you know, I’m struggling, like, a little bit with the concepts, but I really enjoy making the circuits.” And he was like, “Yeah, I really find that, you know, the hands on experience, like, helps me a lot when I’m like, trying to understand the theoretical concepts.” And I was like, “Yeah yeah, I’ve noticed that too.” And then for like, the rest of the lab, he wouldn’t let me touch the circuit board. Um, I-he just would build the circuit and if I tried to, like, adjust something or, you know, fix a mistake he made, he would like, knock my hand away, and say, “No, I need it laid out like this so like, I can visualize it properly.”

Kailey Carvajal 14:40
Oh so like, he didn’t even give you a chance to do anything yourself. Like-

V. C. 14:44
Yeah

Kailey Carvajal 14:45
Even though you had said that that’s how you understood it?

V. C. 14:47
Yeah, exactly. He He gave this whole spiel about like hands on experience being helpful and then wouldn’t let me touch the thing. He basically just reduced me to, like, a secretary who wrote down, like, the values that he would read off to me into the spreadsheet,

Kailey Carvajal 15:01
Oh my gosh.

V. C. 15:01
And that day, and he made a mistake. Like it was already infuriating enough, but he made a mistake in the circuit that I noticed. And every time I tried to point it out or fix it myself, he would knock me down and tell me I was wrong and it was something else. And we ended up staying in class, like, an hour past everyone else in the class It was supposed to be an easy, quick lab, and we were there an hour after everyone else had left because he wouldn’t let me fix the mistake in the circuit. So, and I had never seen him do that with anyone else in the class, so, you know, it was um a very frustrating experience. So yeah. [pause] Can’t really say it felt the same in the uh Astronomy Department.

Kailey Carvajal 15:51
So throughout history, we’ve seen the gender norms sort of dictate that women stay at home while the men go out and work to support the family. Um the interview I was talking about earlier with the woman who was earning her Ph.D. in chemistry and was super excited to wear pants, um she was forced to quit her job eventually, because her husband wanted her to stay at home and raise their kids. Um and so, your boyfriend was also an astrophysics major back at University of Maryland. How has he supported you as you’ve made the push to pursue your Ph.D. while he works?

V. C. 16:24
Oh, he’s been incredibly supportive. Um, he was so excited for me when I got into grad schools, even though I got into places that he had also applied to and didn’t get into, including here at Arizona. Um and he was nothing but support the entire way. Um he was fortunate enough to land a job, and I mean, in a way, I guess he still is the breadwinner, because he’s making way more than I am as a grad student [laugh]. And he loves it because, uh yeah, but I mean, he’s just been so incredibly supportive of the whole experience. And he like, is so excited to get to call me, like, Dr. Carvajal. You know if we get married, he already agreed that I shouldn’t change my name, so we can stay like Dr. Carvajal and whatnot um. And he’s just been like, so supportive, like every step of the way. And he’s never like, he’s never given, like, any sign that he’s jealous or upset or anything like that. Like he told me like, just the other day, he’s not even thinking about going to grad school anymore because he’s loving, like, working so much. So I think he’s perfectly happy with the way everything’s set up.

Kailey Carvajal 17:36
That’s amazing. I’m so happy you have that support.

V. C. 17:39
I mean, of course, if he wasn’t supportive, I wouldn’t be dating him.

Kailey Carvajal 17:42
Mm hm

V. C. 17:42
It’s nice that I found someone so supportive.

Kailey Carvajal 17:45
Yeah

V. C. 17:46
It does seem that most women in academia end up with, like, a guy in academia. So I don’t know, it’s nice to kind of have it be different.

Kailey Carvajal 17:56
Mm hm. You both have your own experiences and are just going through life together.

V. C. 18:01
Yep.

Kailey Carvajal 18:02
Um, so you’re talking about your, like, research leader [research advisor]? Is that the term? You were talking about her earlier, and like, how she has her kids, and like, seeing how it’s possible to have that balance. Um so when you think about your future, do you see balancing work and having a family in it?

V. C. 18:18
[pause] Um, I don’t know. I still haven’t really thought much about, like, what my future family is gonna look like um. Right now, at least, I’m not really, like, too keen on the idea of having kids, more like adopting older kids, which I think would be, like, easier to balance with a job anyways. I’m not-I’m not, I don’t want to do that because I think it’ll be easier to balance with a job, I just happen to think it would be, like, easier to balance a job with like, a 10 year old rather than, you know, a 10 week old um. And so, uh I haven’t really thought about that much. But to be fair, I also haven’t really thought about what actual career I want to pursue after grad school, so I think all of that is kind of up in the air at the moment. Things happen, life happens. I would definitely like to try and, like, balance a career and work. I really can’t see myself being a stay at home mom. And Matt’s [her boyfriend] already said that he’s perfectly fine at that and he’s even willing to be a stay at home dad if he needs to be and work from home so. Whatever happens, we’ll make it work.

Kailey Carvajal 19:29
Um and even though you don’t really know, like, what-like your work will entail and, like, what you want to do after your degree, um, are there just, like, any fears in general that you have? And like after earning your D woah, Ph.D., um just given, like, the recorded history of discrimination based on gender and sexual assault.

V. C. 19:52
Oh yeah, I mean, it’s definitely an issue that I would keep in mind in any workplace. You know, I’ve thought about going into private industry and working with like a tech company for like, doing coding stuff. But the thought of being surrounded by like, just so many like, Silicon Valley boys, and like tech boys, is just like so off putting because they’re just such unpleasant people to be around. And like, tech companies have like such an awful record of like sexual harassment and discrimination that like, like, I don’t even know if it’s worth it, if it’s a job that I love. I don’t, it’s not worth it if it’s in an environment I don’t love, and so I’m worried about that. And academia, you know, is an issue, although in astronomy, at least, which is which I would be pursuing, there’s definitely been a massive push towards um, like, greater equality and hiring practices and retention practices. Um so, I would definitely feel more comfortable in an Astronomy Department than a Physics Department for sure um. And yeah, so and then I don’t know, with engineering I guess I’m just scared that something like that circuits lab would happen again, like, they just wouldn’t be touch anything. So there’s definitely concerns um and I don’t know. I think it’s unfortunate that I’m probably going to have to just suck it up to some level because there’s always going to be a little bit. But yeah, it’s definitely something I will be taking into consideration.

Do you feel like your gender has limited, like, where you can work? Like you were saying with the Silicon Valley? Like, that’s just something-

Yeah definitely.

Kailey Carvajal 21:35
-that’s just-

V. C. 21:37
You know, a man doesn’t really have to, like, research a company’s history of sexual harassment before he applies for the job, you know. The woman definitely has to look into that sort of thing and what the workplace environment is like, and you know, is it just a men’s club. There aren’t really places that are women’s clubs. So it’s, yeah, I would definitely say my gender impacts future job opportunities.

Kailey Carvajal 22:04
Um so just sort of to wrap up, through your own experiences and knowledge of the historical context of women in STEM, how much change do you think has occurred over time in regard to their treatment?

V. C. 22:14
[pause]There’s definitely been a lot of change um, especially in astronomy. Um I can’t speak to too many other STEM fields, um it’s really just astronomy and physics. And astronomy, there’s definitely been great strides for uh improving the status of women astronomers. There’s been a lot of um retroactive recognition of female computers [women who were hired to do calculations] and astronomers whose work has been uh stolen by their male advisors and male counterparts and passed off as their own and Nobel prizes were then given to said male counterparts, while the women were kind of just left in the dust. So there’s been a lot of, like, good work and doing a retroactive recognition of their accomplishments. And um you know, they’re still, they’re still working on uh, like, hiring and retention, and all that sort of stuff in terms of equality, but um I think generally the treatment of women is a lot better there. In the physics department [sigh]-they’re trying. The women at least are trying. The men – it’s hard to say, I mean, I only have my physics department back at Maryland[TheUniversity of Maryland where she earned her Bachelor’s degrees] to go off of but I mean, if you look at the board of professors, and there’s like, you know, you can count on one hand, the number of women who are on that board, or, you know, I look at the number of girls in my class, and it’s dropped off so much since freshman year, or, you know, the year before I graduated, there were like, 50 Ph.D. students, new new Ph.D. students that I think, like less than five were girls. And it’s just [pause] really hard to uh look at that in today’s age, and be like, “Wow, that still really happens.” You know, even after, like, everything that has happened, you still have that. You still have physicists who will stand up at a conference and say that women have no place in STEM because they’re too emotional, and like, too all over the place, and just not cut out to be a scientist, like, you still have it.

Kailey Carvajal 22:42
Were you there when that was said, or is that just-

V. C. 24:33
No, it was at another international conference. Um and there was a lot of outcry about it. But-

Kailey Carvajal 24:39
But the fact that someone was able to have that platform and say that.

V. C. 24:42
Exactly. The fact that he, like, still held that view, to the point where he was willing to say it at a conference, that I believe was for women in STEM was, it’s just ridiculous that people even still think that so. There’s still definitely plenty of work that needs to be done, and we’re a long way from like, truly equality in STEM.

Kailey Carvajal 25:10
And is there anything that you personally think can be done to help support women in STEM?

V. C. 25:17
That I can do, like, by myself?

Kailey Carvajal 25:19
Well, not that you can do by yourself, but just like, what are you think are things that need to happen in order for women to feel supported in this environment?

V. C. 25:29
Yeah, so um, I definitely think we need to start young. You know, a lot of the outreach for women in STEM starts in like college. And I think that doesn’t address the root issue of so many girls being interested in STEM when they’re young and then like falling out of it by the time they’re older. Um so I think like, improving the support network for like young girls, and like, keeping them connected to other women in STEM will help with like the retention of girls like throughout their lives instead of like, just once they get to college and they’ve decided what they want to do. Um, I also just found, I was members of like, Women in Physics and Women in Astronomy clubs in undergrad, and those were really helpful and just like keeping me connected to that community. And uh they also had like, mentoring programs within those that just, like, helped you connect like one on one with an older woman in STEM. And that was also just like, a really nice experience to have that sort of, like, support and leadership and so. But all those things are just women doing things and I think, you know, to really feel supported, it’s important to also have male, like, male, um what’s the word?

Kailey Carvajal 26:49
Sort of like changing the narrative? They’re like-

V. C. 26:53
Like males using like their positions and privilege to like, also um speak up and advocate for women? You know, you shouldn’t – women shouldn’t have to carry the burden of making it an equitable workplace, it should-

Kailey Carvajal 27:09
Mm hm

V. C. 27:09
There are also men involved who should, and many of the male professors in the Astronomy Department are like very hard, outspoken advocates for women in the department and in astronomy and in STEM in general, and I always felt very supported in the Astronomy Department.

Kailey Carvajal 27:26
But you didn’t see that sort of outreach from your physics professors?

V. C. 27:30
[pause] Not really. I don’t know, I had one astronomy professor go on like a 15 minute rant about his like absolute incredible astronomy idol. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered the existence of pulsars, and then had said discovery stolen by her advisor, and he won the Nobel Prize for it. And he went on, like a whole rant in the middle of class one day, because he just loved her so much and he was talking about how he, like, finally got to meet her in person at a conference and he was like, just so awestruck that he completely froze and just, like stumbled over all of his words, because he was just so excited to finally meet his idol. And, you know, that’s just like a really refreshing take to hear. Um you know, just like, wow, it’s not just women who have to have women role models, you know, like men can have limited role models. So, like, that was just really nice.

Kailey Carvajal 28:27
Okay, that is all the questions that I have prepared, so I’m going to stop recording

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Research:

Throughout the history of women in STEM, specifically in astronomy and physics, we have seen a lack of sustained support for women pursuing these careers. Many are able to receive degrees in the field yet they are often pressured to leave their jobs in order to raise their family. There is a recorded history of women in STEM facing increased job discrimination on the basis of their gender and there a large number of reports of sexual harassment in the workplace. 

 

Bibliography:

“Women in College during the 1950’s” Interview with Barbara Anderson, History 150 Spring 2020, Conducted by Carter Gilbert, March 9, 2020.

“The STEM Gap: Women and Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – AAUW : Empowering Women Since 1881.” AAUW, 5 Oct. 2020, www.aauw.org/resources/research/the-stem-gap/. 

Settles, Isis. “Women in STEM: Challenges and Determinants of Success and Well-Being.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, Oct. 2014, www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2014/10/women-stem. 

Commentary:

I shared the transcript with the interviewee for them to look over it. They were fine with everything that was said and wished to clarify that the reason they said “um” so much was that they were trying to gather their words and make sure they were saying what they wanted to say instead of rushing into an idea without knowing where they were going with it.

This interview was conducted over Zoom on February 27, 2021, with no technical difficulties. There was trouble with the Otterai transcription in that it had difficulty distinguishing between the two voices, and there were a large number of words omitted from the transcript as well as spelling errors. The transcription guide was helpful on pg. 16 when it described how to deal with “false starts.” I did decide to stray away from the guide however when it came to removing words such as “like,” “uh,” and “um.” My reason for this is because growing up, I was told that people who overused those words were displaying that they weren’t well educated. I was interviewing a well-educated young woman who used these words while still being able to get her point across and I think it proves that individuals are more than what they show to others. I also think that keeping them in shows the generational difference of younger people being accustomed to using these words, whereas if you look at interviews with individuals from older generations they are less likely to have the words said as many times. 

While editing the transcript, something that I really struggled with was how to punctuate my sentences when the words stated above were used. From a grammatical standpoint, the words should be surrounded by commas. Yet my sister incorporated them into her sentences so smoothly that having the punctuation in the transcript felt like a disruption to what she was saying. I used my discretion when editing the transcript to make it flow as nicely but this was something that caused me a lot of issues.