STEM in Higher Education: Analysis of Gendered Themes Across Pacific Northwest Institutional Policies

Abstract

Despite efforts to reach gender parity, women remain underrepresented in academic STEM fields. Structural conditions within universities are known to contribute to this underrepresentation, but existing studies have not adequately address university policies and their connection to persistent gender inequality in the academy. To bridge this gap, we apply Acker’s Theory of Gendered Organizations (1990) to the university setting by analyzing policy texts from thirteen diverse institutions, including doctorate-granting and primarily undergraduate serving universities, as well as community colleges. Specifically, we assessed the extent to which the language contained in these documents is gendered. Through the creation of conceptual lexicons and use of several metrics (i.e., polarity scores, n-grams, and radar charts), we determined that the university policy texts were largely written as gender-neutral. However, future studies should examine the implementation of these policies, as the latter may be responsible for perpetuating gender inequities.