ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly outlines the evolution of studies of students (and particularly women) in the mathematics/science pipeline. It illustrates that taking a feminist but noncritical perspective does not necessarily illuminate the subject fully. To support that argument, the chapter briefly presents the results of a study conducted and analyzed from a feminist perspective. It reanalyzes the data from a critical feminist perspective hoping that the research might be used to transform our ways of framing issues and policies affecting women. Researchers report gender differences in expectations communicated to high school students by their parents and by their teachers. Some literature suggests that women in general differ from men in their orientations to do research, teaching, and service. Conventional research essentially mimics that which has been taught. Research questions stem directly from unanswered portions of an unseen whole and follow deductively from other research.
