Breaking Patterns? How Female Scientists Negotiate their Token Role in their Life Stories
基于象征性理论，分析女性科学家在科学、工程与技术领域如何通过相似性或差异性策略协商职业与性别认同，发现两种策略均未能挑战男性主导规范。
Building upon token theory, this paper analyses coping behaviours of women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) through a professional identity perspective. It proposes that female scientists need to negotiate and balance conflicting aspects of their professional and gender identities throughout their career. A reconstructive biography analysis of Leitmotif and Gestalt of 15 life stories reveals that gender is the structuring element of the female scientists' self‐presentation. The paper presents two key cases which exemplify two alternative coping strategies: the women either use a similarity strategy , relying on full assimilation to the masculine norms in SET, or a difference strategy , highlighting their otherness and their struggle for equality. The in‐depth analysis reveals that both strategies cannot ‘break patterns', but instead leave the dominance of masculine norms in SET unchallenged. Implications of these findings are discussed.