Women In Science And Math

There are lots of social reasons why women in science and math don’t achieve the same results as the men, (or think they don’t).

Why is it do you think that Science and Math has historically been such a male dominated subject? We’ve all grown up with the notion that women can’t do science or math as well as men, because their brains are different and have better spatial abilities, meaning that they are more suited to science and math, and girls have superior abilities in language and writing skills.

Women in Science and Math – Hello Barbie, Shut Up Barbie

In 1992, some bright spark at Mattel (probably be a man!) decided that some of the first words to come from ‘Talking Barbie’ would be ‘Math is hard. Let’s go shopping.’ Obviously thinking that this was acceptable and would be something that school age girls could relate to, it was not so well received by parents and teachers. Barbie was henceforth made to button up and keep her mouth shut, the makers obviously realizing that speech was not one of Barbie’s best assets anyway.

The Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Many girls have a negative attitude toward math and science. They think that they can’t do it, therefore they can’t do it, and therefore they don’t like it and drop it like a hot potato as soon as is humanly possible. Realistically, the early results of math and science classes show that in many cases girls grades are equal to, or often better than, the boys. They can do math and science, so who tells them that they can’t? By dropping math and science as soon as possible they find themselves limited to their college education and career options, leaving them firmly at the lower end of the pay scale.

Science and Math Education Issues

Many girls feel uncomfortable with math and science before they ever even enter the classroom. Small boys are often given toys to play with which involve lots of the main principles involved in math and science, cars and building blocks to start with, leading on to tool kits and chemistry sets, but girls are very often not given the opportunity to explore these areas so are at a disadvantage before they have even started. Society also stereotypes the personality traits of scientists and mathematicians, the ‘mad scientist’ with the wild hair and no social skills whatsoever, locking themselves away in the lab with his experiments.

Women in Science and Math – The Future

To enhance the future we must look to the past – Women CAN DO SCIENCE, Marie Curie showed everybody that over 100 years ago. But what practical things can we do to make sure that girls are given an equal opportunity, and believe that they can succeed as women in the math and science fields?

Parents:

• Don’t be surprised if your daughter is good at math and science. Many parents have the impression girls do well in these areas due to hard work, whereas boys can just be ‘good at it’!
• Choose toys more carefully, remember that girls might like chemistry sets too! They are not only interested in dolls and dressing up.
• Ake an active interest in the math and science lessons at school, don’t reinforce old traditions, make a stand and don’t allow girls to give up at the first hurdle just for being girls.
• Encourage hands on experience at home. Science experiments can be fun at home, you never know, you could learn something yourself!

Teachers:

• Make sure that equal opportunities are given to the girls and boys in your science and math classes.
• Endeavor to make it fun with lots of practical hands on experience.
• Encourage girls to take part in the experiments, just as much as the boys.