“I’m no Expert”: Japanese STEM Women’s Self-definition as Social Reflection via Collocation and Content Analysis

Currently, in STEM environments, female employees are often recognized as minorities due to their positioning or occupancy rate, which may lead to experiences of “imposter syndrome”. This study applies frameworks of mixed-gender discourse, such as limited involvement in activity as an agent, markedness, and gender-differentiated roles, to clarify how women in STEM position themselves or are positioned by the society. Using corpus linguistics and content analysis, it is clarified that female researchers are usually linguistically marked or tend to distinguish themselves as non-experts. Thus, their portrayal within a misogynistic society may considerably interact with how female researchers represent themselves.

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