Portrayal of Women in STEM in prime time TV

Misrepresentation

There are a few women in STEM characters that can be seen in prime time shows. Yet, these women are often misrepresented as to what a woman in science tends to be and do. Most women in these positions represent only the women whom do biological science and not physical science. This lack of representation may be part of the cause of the lack of women in physical sciences such as engineering and physics.
These women are often sexualized or objectified as well. You will most likely see a women in STEM only be used as a romance for a male character. Another common thing seen in these shows is that the women often do not have their work a part of the show but only as a side not. As well as the female characters tend to only talk to female characters or will only talk about a male. You will see little of women in STEM talk about STEM on TV.
This is seen in the data collected by this website. There are quite a few women in the STEM fields on TV but the amount of women in physical science is a significant amount less than the amount of men in the physical sciences on television. In fact, more men are represented in  TV shows than women. Women only hold a STEM career 21.1% on prime time. 

As you flip through the women, think about how they are presented and how this differs from their male counterparts. 

For examples of women in STEM  characters. 

Home

This page has paths:

This page references: