Why can’t a girl fucking love science? It was recently revealed on the Facebook group “I Fucking Love Science” and the censored-version “Science is Awesome” that the administrator was, in fact, a lady. What the administrator, Elise Andrew, didn’t expect was the onslaught of sexist comments that followed. She tweeted: “Every comment on that thread is about how shocking it is that I’m a woman! Is this really 2013?” This tweet shows two things. Obviously, there are still ignorant attitudes towards women in science. On the other hand, there actually are women in science.
Things look pretty peachy for females studying science. In 2012, females taking science subjects at GCSE and A Level achieved higher or equal A*-C grades to males. It was education that got Hannah Sykes, a Chemistry undergraduate, passionate about science – the sort of passion that has her reading books about chemistry for leisure. She said: “I started to enjoy it at A Level because my teacher got me really enthusiastic about it. He did lots of good experiments and got us all involved. Once we had to act like electrons going around the room. The content was a lot more fun really.
“I hope to stay in university to do a PhD, because I wish to go into research and development into new antimicrobial drugs for neglected diseases, hopefully.”
Women are also involved in science communities. Alistair MacDonald is co-founder of Makerspace, a community of makers, programmers, scientists and engineers in the North East. The amount of women who attend the workshops varies between sessions.
“Some evenings there are none, others there are a majority,” said Alistair. But is the amount of women who attend such communities an issue that needs addressing? “From what I can see the numbers in our organisation generally reflects the numbers of people I know interested in our subject. I also feel this is equalising very slowly. Does this need addressing? I don’t know. I don’t want to say what someone would want to do, only that we should not stop anyone from doing something if they want to do it.”
As Geekybit readers will know, there are clearly women interested in science. Women are good at it too. The percentage of girls entered for GCSE Physics and Chemistry increased by 82 and 79 per cent between 2009 and 2012. This trend continued at A Level. The number of girls taking Chemistry, Physics and Maths all increased between 13 and 40 per cent. On the surface it looks like 2012 was a success for getting more girls studying science. So why do we still need more women science? Why are there campaigns like WISE UK and European Commission’s Science: It’s A Girl Thing trying to get girls interested in the science?
As much as scientists like statistics, they must consider the confounding variables. In 2012, males also had a higher rate of increase in science subjects. Also, Science and Science (Additional) are now mainly core GCSE subjects in secondary schools. While the statistics paint a lovely picture that might crack a smile on a feminist’s face, it is these variables that show us that things have not really changed at GCSE level.
WISE compiles these statistics and campaigns for the gender balance in the UK’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. Helen Wollaston, director of WISE, said: “There is still a big gap between female and male participation in studying Physics and Maths, which are both good for an engineering career.”
She said there are three reasons why this matters. “First of all, we need more skilled people in the UK in engineering, for example, doing broadcast engineering with the BBC. We are only attracting half of that potential workforce.
“The second reason is that we need better people working in manufacturing. Where other countries are doing this, this country is falling behind. Companies will want to recruit the best and they are missing out. More girls are getting better grades than boys, so it’s not like they can’t do it!”
“The third reason is that diversity in any industry is good for business. An example, although I don’t want to stereotype, is that girls are good at collaborating and team working.” Helen uses the example of construction in housing. If a client prefers or is more comfortable talking to a woman, then it is good to have a woman available.
There have also been similar campaigns with making a career in technology more accessible to women, such as Lady Geek and Little Miss Geek, Microsoft’s DigiGirlz, and TeenTech. Clearly, people are recognising the issue in the gender gaps and believe there needs to be a change. “Women are bigger users of say Facebook than men. If females could be involved in product creation, there could be a much better result,” said Helen. In other words, it would be beneficial for women to produce the things they consume.
There is one lady who is high up in Facebook who recognises that women need to “lean in” to not just male-dominated industries but to higher job roles. Sheryl Sandburg, chief operating officer of Facebook, recently became the new face of feminism with her book Lean In. Facebook is forever changing and changing quickly, for example, it was worth $104billion one day then lost $34billion the next. With how quick things can change in the social networking world, Sandburg has started a Lean In movement to try and encourage women to make a quick change for themselves, which in turn will make a universal change.
But are attitudes like the ones Elise Andrews experienced on “I Fucking Love Science”, like “This is a babe?” and “Are there kitchens in space?”, going to put women off pursuing a career in science? Helen believes it might be one of the reasons because science-based jobs are traditionally seen as male jobs. “Girls don’t think it is cool or it doesn’t suit their interests.” One of the things WISE aims to do is make girls more aware of women role models.
Another way of shifting away from male stereotypes is by changing the way science is taught. “It is not relevant. It can be if it was taught in a way that is more interesting to girls,” said Helen. Where boys could stereotypically be seen to like cars and the explosions side of science, medical science, health care in animals and world issues like climate change might appeal more to girls. Of course, boys and girls could like any of these aspects, but a variety in content could make education in science more interesting.
Hannah agrees that it is at the secondary education that changes need to be made. “I think maybe there should be more campaigns in schools about how amazing science is so that more kids take it as an [GCSE] option so that they can continue it onto A Level.” It is also the support received from teachers, like Hannah’s A Level teacher, that Helen believes is needed to get girls passionate about science.
Women are a minority in science. We shouldn’t dishearten anyone who wants a bit of science in their life, but does it matter that women are a minority? Yes. The reason: for a higher skilled and diverse workforce. More girls can be interested in science if their eyes are opened to how it is relevant to them. We need to change the male science nerd stereotype. And as “I Fucking Love Science” shows, there needs to be less prejudice. A change in UK culture will take time. Where campaigns aim to reach young girls now, they hope to lead to a future with more women playing key roles in science and engineering. Hopefully, the UK STEM workforce and products created will benefit because of more girls “fucking love science”!
Geekybit 