A Multicase Study of the Impact of Perceived Gender Roles on the Career Decisions of Women in Science-Related Careers

The purpose of this study was to determine how perceived gender roles developed throughout childhood and early adulthood impacted the career decisions of women in science-related career fields. An additional purpose was to determine if my experiences as I analyzed the data and the propositions discovered in the study would become a transformative agent for me. A multicase framework was utilized so that within and between case analyses could be achieved. Four women who showed early promise in science were chosen as the case study participants. The relationship of gender roles to the career decisions made by the four cases were arbitrated through three areas: (a) supports, which came from parents, immediate family members, spouses, teachers, mentors, and collaborators; (b) opportunities, which were separated into family experiences and opportunities, school and community opportunities, and postsecondary/current opportunities; and (c) postmodern feminism, which was the lens that grounded this study and fit well with the lives of the cases. As seen through a postmodern feminist lens, the cases’ social class, their lived experiences tied to their opportunities and supports, and the culture of growing up in a small rural community helped them develop personas for the professions they chose even where those professions did not necessarily follow from the early promise shown for a sciencerelated career. In addition, as related to my transformation as a male researcher, being a male conducting research in a realm most often shared by women, I was able to gain greater empathy and understanding of what it takes for women to be successful in a career and at the same time maintain a fruitful family life

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Resolving the End-Guadalupian Extinction

The transition from the middle to late Permian (Guadalupian–Lopingian) is claimed to record one or more extinction events that rival the ‘Big Five’ in terms of depletion of biological diversity and reorganization of ecosystem structure. Yet many questions remain as to whether the events recorded in separate regions were synchronous, causally related, or were of a magnitude rivaling other major crises in Earth\u27s history. In this paper, we survey some major unresolved issues related to the Guadalupian–Lopingian transition and offer a multidisciplinary approach to advance understanding of this under-appreciated biotic crisis by utilizing records in Southern Hemisphere high-palaeolatitude settings. We focus on the Bowen-Gunnedah-Sydney Basin System (BGSBS) as a prime site for analyses of biotic and physical environmental change at high palaeolatitudes in the middle and terminal Capitanian. Preliminary data suggest the likely position of the mid-Capitanian event is recorded in regressive deposits at the base of the Tomago Coal Measures (northern Sydney Basin) and around the contact between the Broughton Formation and the disconformably overlying Pheasants Nest Formation (southern Sydney Basin). Initial data suggest that the end-Capitanian event roughly correlates to the transgressive “Kulnura Marine Tongue” in the middle of the Tomago Coal Measures (northern Sydney Basin) and strata bearing dispersed, ice-rafted gravel in the Erins Vale Formation (southern Sydney Basin). Preliminary observations suggest that few plant genera or species disappeared in the transition from the Guadalupian to Lopingian, and the latter interval saw an increase in floristic diversity

A multidisciplinary approach to resolving the end-Guadalupian extinction

The transition from the middle to late Permian (Guadalupian–Lopingian) is claimed to record one or more extinction events that rival the ‘Big Five’ in terms of depletion of biological diversity and reorganization of ecosystem structure. Yet many questions remain as to whether the events recorded in separate regions were synchronous, causally related, or were of a magnitude rivaling other major crises in Earth’s history. In this paper, we survey some major unresolved issues related to the Guadalupian–Lopingian transition and offer a multidisciplinary approach to advance understanding of this under-appreciated biotic crisis by utilizing records in Southern Hemisphere high-palaeolatitude settings. We focus on the Bowen-Gunnedah-Sydney Basin System (BGSBS) as a prime site for analyses of biotic and physical environmental change at high palaeolatitudes in the middle and terminal Capitanian. Preliminary data suggest the likely position of the mid-Capitanian event is recorded in regressive deposits at the base of the Tomago Coal Measures (northern Sydney Basin) and around the contact between the Broughton Formation and the disconformably overlying Pheasants Nest Formation (southern Sydney Basin). Initial data suggest that the end-Capitanian event roughly correlates to the transgressive “Kulnura Marine Tongue” in the middle of the Tomago Coal Measures (northern Sydney Basin) and strata bearing dispersed, ice-rafted gravel in the Erins Vale Formation (southern Sydney Basin). Preliminary observations suggest that few plant genera or species disappeared in the transition from the Guadalupian to Lopingian, and the latter interval saw an increase in floristic diversity