Exploring topics of the female librarians

Topic modelling approach on research articles

Background of the study: Female librarians often face limitations in their professional development and encounter various challenges. Previous studies have shown that while many articles focus on women librarians as a subject, few delve into the topics discussed.

Purpose: This research aims to find out which topics are developing in the world of libraries, with a specific focus on female librarians.

Method: This study uses topic modelling to explore abstracts from documents discussing female librarians, using BERTopic, scattertext, and VOSviewer to identify emerging topics from data obtained from Scopus.

Findings: A total of 6 topics were determined, where Topic 0 and Topic 3 had the highest similarity. At the same time, keyword analysis did not reveal any particularly prominent keywords in the 2020s.

Conclusion: The discussion on female librarians covers topics such as professional advancement, work-life balance, knowledge gaps in technology, stereotypes, and the correlation between these topics. This study provides an overview of text analysis that librarians can use to identify topics in a collection of texts, such as abstracts, and examine how different topics relate to each other, as a single document can reflect multiple topics.

Introduction

Throughout history, women have been limited to employment opportunities in fields deemed suitable for their gender, including roles such as being a librarian.(Rubin, 2016)offers a few theories from a historical perspective about the predominance of women in American librarianship, particularly public librarianship, which may have contributed to the perception of passivity among librarians, as passivity was a cultural expectation for women well into the 20th century. As public libraries expanded in the 19th century, there was a growing demand for library workers. However, due to poor funding, libraries relied on staff members willing to work for low pay, and male library directors preferred hiring talented women for half the pay. Librarianship was seen as fitting the values of work for women at the time, which included personal improvement and the belief that books and reading could improve morals, akin to missionary work. These historical forces have left a lasting impact on librarianship, which continues to attract individuals who share these convictions, indicating that its service aspect is still deeply ingrained.

Not only does the majority of the librarian workforce comprise females, but they also dominate academic research in librarianship, indicating that this profession continues to be predominantly female.(Galbraith et al., 2019)stated, which drew upon data from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) that the gender wage gap in academic libraries is showing signs of improvement. The study found that the adjusted pay gap between men and women in ARL Libraries was relatively modest and considerably smaller compared to other professions in the US. The research highlights that academic libraries have taken measures to tackle gender pay inequality. Nevertheless, there are still discrepancies in salaries between males and females across all tiers of research libraries despite the aforementioned discoveries(Howard et al., 2020).

Even today, women encounter numerous obstacles, particularly in leadership positions dominated by men. The societal stereotype of librarianship being a feminine profession has created a situation where men are discouraged from pursuing them, leading to a low representation of men in these fields. This stereotype has resulted in a vicious cycle where the underrepresentation of men further reinforces the perception that these fields are exclusively for women. Men interested in these professions may be deterred due to perceived gender expectations. As a result, the gender gap in these fields persists(Blackburn, 2015).

Literature Review

Female Librarian

The occupation of the librarian has historically been more closely linked with women, specifically. From historical data gained related to gender equality in libraries, according to(Silva & Galbraith, 2018), women have been identified as the most dominant gender in library works. Men only made up 17% of the overall proportion in academic libraries, while the rest were made up of women, as was reported in their article. It was mentioned that there is also a stereotype that women's jobs are lower-paying jobs than men's. This demonstrates the unfair perception that exists in works for women.

Another issue highlighted is the lack of women in the top positions in the library profession, as was documented by several previous studies; for example,(Blackburn, 2015)denoted females as a subject related to works that are seen as feminine and earn less than males, despite the fact that they make up the majority of the gender in librarianship. Other issues stated in the prior studies was that female librarians have typically been depicted negatively, often portrayed as timid, socially awkward individuals who prefer reading books to engaging in real-life experiences.

The study by(Rutledge, 2020)found that managing work responsibilities while caring for family and children was the most frequently mentioned barrier for women. Many participants explained that their partner's job took priority over their own or that they had to leave their jobs when their partners could not get positions. Caring for children while managing or pursuing management positions was also a common challenge, as women reported feeling guilty when they focused on work and experienced difficulty balancing careers and parenting. Although women were the majority in libraries, they were often overlooked as potential leaders or heads of libraries due to the stereotype that they were delicate and incapable of handling the demands of administrative roles.

Furthermore, another discussion regarding female gender for library professionals was surrounding areas of inclusivity and self-development.(Mars, 2018)found that the composition of the library profession today is a product of historical factors and stereotypes associated with librarians. Despite some progress, the majority of librarians are still women and they face persistent economic inequality and are underrepresented in leadership positions. As previously stated, women predominate among genders in the library world. Still, some research revealed that women must evolve if they are willing to receive the same respect and get more support and appreciation to bloom in library works.

Female in Library Positioning

Previous studies have conducted several initiatives to equalise the representation of women and men in libraries. More investigations also concentrate on the diversity phenomenon in the library; for example, to reflect society as a whole and promote more equity in the workplace, it is crucial to examine the ratio of female to male librarians(Morales et al., 2014);(Silva & Galbraith, 2018). Another study investigated the barriers to female gender being in the lead of library professionals; often, that study stated cultural context to be involved as a factor, along with the biases in terms