Musings on Science and Women and Science and Kids

I heard a statistic while listening to NPR recently that girls start to ignore or doubt their aptitude in math before they’re 10 years old. I read the statistics, and I see the op-ed’s in newspapers about how girls are not going into math and science careers. And while I don’t doubt that it is at least partially true, I have to say that in my own experience, I know a lot of women who have chosen math and science careers.

Maybe that’s because I’m in the biological sciences, which does seem to attract more women than, for example, physical sciences or chemistry. But when I was in graduate school, I would say that the majority of my colleagues there were women. In fact, at one point, the lab I was training in had about 6 or 7 females and only 1 man.

After I got my Ph.D. and went on to do post-doctoral training (as is usual for bio-science doctorates), I would say that the ratio of men:women was about 1:1. The generation ahead of me, however, was not so equitable.

Most of my professors were men. Many of them were quite enlightened about having women in their lab. I would have to say that I’ve been really lucky. I can only really think of one case where I felt that I was treated unfairly in a situation, and that it possibly may have been because I was a woman. While a big deal for me at the time, I did make it through the task just fine, and I haven’t really noticed anything like that since. I have been lucky to have wonderful mentors, and to live in a generation that promoted women’s ambitions.

I have heard horror stories from the women who paved the way in the generation before. The stories they told were of male professors who would pass them over in favor of male students for spots in labs because they figured the women weren’t actually serious about their careers. If you’re in graduate school, you’re serious about your field. There were male professors who failed to help women graduate students when it came time to graduate and move on to post-doctoral work, simply because they couldn’t imagine why a woman would want to do it. Well, it’s what you do after you get the degree—move on to the next step in your training. Then there was the real need for these women to not only do well when they finally got faculty positions (which was incredibly difficult for them in the 1960’s), but to excel so much more than their male colleagues just to show that they should be taken seriously.

I am grateful for the women who blazed the trail before me. I think their hard work was reflected in the number of wonderful women scientists I’ve encountered as colleagues along my way.

So, when I hear about girls losing interest in math and science at young ages, it distresses me. I recognize that everyone has different interests, and the technical fields are not for everyone. I’m thinking of people now who do have the aptitude, but lose interest because of some sort of outside pressure. Where and when does the shift in a girl’s mind happen when she thinks she can’t handle math and science anymore?

Here’s a Washington Post article that suggests it’s social pressure, and that it can be overcome. I actually know some wonderful elementary and middle school math and science teachers who are doing great jobs with their kids. I’ve visited a couple of their classrooms and have been impressed with their dedication and enthusiasm. I judge regularly in local science fairs, and see some great questions and great method being used by kids as young as 7th grade.

Here’s the interesting thing though—while the most detailed studies in these science fairs are done by kids in 11th and 12th grades, the more fun projects, and the greatest number of projects, are being done by kids in 7th and 8th grades. It’s a blast to read and judge the 7th and 8th grade projects! I actually learn a lot from them (and get ashamed by the amount of stuff I’ve forgotten over the years).

So, I ask, does science stop being fun after that? Puberty hits with a vengeance, kids start thinking about other things, social pressure.

I may be a bit rambling in this post, but I’m kind of thinking out loud. Any ideas?