Research

Globalization of Science: Gender and Mobility in Academia

One of my projects considers gender and scientific workplaces in the context of globalization. Global science has been evolving rapidly: the United States is getting increasing numbers of both competitors and collaboration partners from other parts of the world, primarily Asia and Europe. Academic scientists and engineers increasingly need to, and are expected to, engage in international scientific networks and collaborations. While many colleges and universities, along with much of the research, have been concerned with sending students abroad, fewer have explored how to support faculty members' international research cooperation and mobility. Even less attention has been brought to how these challenges and potential opportunities for scientific career paths are gendered.

I explore the core intersection of two important processes: how gender relations are being reconfigured in global science, and, how universities are changing due to the international positioning of U.S. science. I argue that, on the one hand, the globalization of science has important implications for gender relations in academia, and, on the other, gendered inequalities shape the globalization process. Gendered "glass borders" exist in academia. Globalization processes intensify challenges for academic careers of U.S.-based women scientists because gendered burdens and barriers that have been identified at the national level are amplified at the international level. For example, balancing family and work creates additional hurdles for parents, particularly in dual-career couples, when the work takes researchers abroad. Surprisingly, though, internationalization also provides opportunities from which women and individuals from minority groups can particularly benefit, for example, enjoying a "nationality bonus." We might expect that being a woman and a foreigner might accumulate disadvantages; however, I find that being a woman and scientist from the United States can create a crucial advantage. U.S.-based women are perceived as competent, since being a scientist from the United States is more salient than being a woman scientist.

Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Northeastern University
531 Holmes Hall
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
phone 617.373.3852
fax 617.373.2688