Girls in Science

October 11, 2014

• A Levels
• / University and Higher Education

Yes, these two words do go together! Read on for an article written by one of our tutors about a subject close to her heart…

For a long time men, like in many industries, dominated science. But as we progress further into the 21^st century, the level of women in science is increasing. Despite this, there is still a long way to go before equality is achieved. There is some progress in certain science courses. For example, in biology and medicinal courses such as nursing, women dominate these course but men dominated in physical sciences, maths and computer sciences.

Even those that take it at degree level, the number of women who continue on into further research is much lower than the number of men. But why is that? There are various articles projecting various ideas why but the main one seems to stem from stereotypes. That for girls, it is more important for them to appear feminine and fit in with society which does not include being overly interested in the science and maths. There is more pressure on girls than boys and being overly intelligent in a hard science is not seen as something a girl should be.

In a powerfully written article in the NYT, Eileen Pollack talked about her experience while undertaking her degree in Physics in Yale in the 1970s. Although now that is nearly 40 years ago, the number of female students was shockingly low. She then goes onto talk about when she came back in 2010 she spoke to some women about their experiences, she found that a number of them had suffered from teasing in their Physics class in high school from male classmates. They expected the teacher to put a stop to it but he did nothing. Many of them struggled to cope in a world dominated by men as they found they were not given the respect seemingly because they were female.

Looking at results from lower in school, before students have to choose the subjects they take, girls do similarly well in tests as well as men but the split becomes later. After choices are made when the young women are put into classes which are heavily dominated by the male community, it is found that the women do not thrive as they did before.

Despite having few women in science there have been some great inspirations. Marie Curie, the first women to win the Nobel Prize and part of a select group to have won it in two fields, chemistry and physics. We also have Dorothy Hodgkin and Rosalind Franklin. The former was another Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and the latter was a very important step on the road to the discovery of the structure of DNA.

These are the more famous women but there have been plenty more who have not received the same level of fame or recognition in their work as their male counterpart. For example, Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered the first pulsar while working for her advisor, Anthony Hewish. However, she did not share in his Nobel Prize despite there being a place for a third recipient.

But this is all in the past, we need to be aware of the inequality in science to ensure we don’t slip back into a time where it is so heavily dominated by one sex. There have been great progress in the number of women in science. For example, in 2009 54% of the graduated were men, leaving 46% being female. If we continue to work at encouraging women into science we could get this completely level. We need to ensure they are treated in the same way as men, given the same opportunities and paid the same as men in similar jobs. Ensuring more powerful women are placed in important positions where they can influence and become idols for young women just coming into science will help securing equality in science.

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