Maryellen Schaub

GENDER STRATIFICATION IN THE SCIENCE PIPELINE A Comparative Analysis of Seven Countries

This study uses a “science pipeline” model and cross-national data to examine womens participation in science education and occupations in seven countries. Gender stratification in later science education and in science occupations is found in every country examined. Young womens participation in science education decreases with each stage in the science pipeline, but there is considerable cross-national variation in the extent of gender stratification in science. Findings show greater gender stratification in science occupations than in science education, suggesting factors other than training help maintain inequality in high-status science occupations.

Untangling the First Three Years

Two recent books reveal the infancy of the field of developmental neurobiology but also brim with information from more mature fields related to the first three years of human development. I initially read The First Three Years & Beyond, by Edward F. Zigler, Matia Finn-Stevenson, and Nancy W. Hall, but then was inspired to read John T. Bruer’s The Myth of the First Three Years as well. Zigler et al. repeatedly refer to that volume in their book. Both books present developmental neurobiological findings, especially those relevant to early childhood. The authors of both books are committed to the creation of thoughtful and appropriate policies and programs in the United States, but neither Zigler et al. nor Bruer present a definitive interpretation of the implications of developmental neurobiological findings on the first three years; we are left, therefore, with two interpretations. Zigler et al.’s volume is a thorough review of policy and research related to early childhood brain development. As advocates of progressive policies and programs for young children, these authors methodically review a host of research findings related to the general issues of school readiness, health care, and child development. As researchers, Zigler et al. are specifically interested in lowSES and at-risk populations. These authors drive home the point that early childhood intervention can make an important positive difference in the lives of young children but that policy in the United States only sometimes supports this conclusion, as evidenced by its erratic school readiness programs.

The Globalized “Whole Child”: Cultural Understandings of Children and Childhood in Multilateral Aid Development Policy, 1946–2010

Current global conceptions of childhood dictate that all children are entitled to a childhood that provides protection, preparation, and child development for the whole child. We analyze 65 years of policy documents from the influential multilateral agency UNICEF focusing on how cultural ideas have changed over time and how they have blended into the contemporary idea of the child and childhood that is distinctly different from the period immediately following World War II. The results present a rich description of these trends including the greater elaboration of educational development during childhood, movement from an image of the simple unidimensional child to greater complexity and multiple dimensions, the whole child, and a shift away from imagining children as creations of particular local cultural contexts to a global, one-size-fits-all child with universal requirements and rights to human development, the globalized whole child.

The Expansion of the Child's Garden: Women's Education and Kindergarten Enrollment during the Twentieth Century.

The emergence and transformation of kindergarten in the United States is the quintessential example of the irrepressibility of schooling expansion, the ever-greater institutionalization of education in children’s lives, and the rise in formal education’s emphasis on cognitive skills among young children. This article explores the cultural transformation of kindergarten from a separate play-based experience to the first year of formal schooling. This happened all while kindergarten enrollments expanded. Over the course of the twentieth century, parents increasingly opted to enroll their children in formal schooling prior to compulsory attendance requirements, regardless of mothers’ work status. Instead, enrollment rates are associated with mothers’ education levels.

The Expansion of Early Childhood Education

Over the course of the twentieth century, schooling expanded dramatically in the United States; it expanded to include not only larger proportions of the population but also increasing levels of attainment. The upward reach of schooling expansion is well documented (e.g., Schofer and Meyer 2005) and at some points in history has been met with skepticism (Baker 2008). But American ambivalence toward the expansion of early childhood education is unparalleled. This is best illustrated in our slow incorporation of kindergarten into the regular school schedule. Kindergarten was first imported to the United States in the 1850s and originally included a wider range of ages. It was slowly incorporated into the public school schedule with some philosophical compromises (Tyack and Cuban 1995) and remains optional in most states. The new frontier of school expansion is the subject of two new books on the United States’ movement toward universal prekindergarten: The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics by David Kirp and Standardized Childhood: The Political and Cultural Struggle over Early Education by Bruce Fuller. These two books explore a topic that is both timely and historically interesting. In the United States, school expansion for young children has been slow and sporadic (Beatty 1995). In 1940, 43 percent of fiveand six-yearolds were enrolled in school. By 1964, that percentage had risen to 83, in 1984 to 94.5, and in 2004 to 95.4. Enrollments for threeand four-yearolds lagged behind enrollments for fiveand six-year-olds but experienced