The Future

Over the weekend I read a story about a study that concluded that women aren’t in “hard” science because they aren’t interested in it or have somehow gotten disillusioned with it. The piece raised a few red flags for me because these studies often seem to come to some conclusion based on biology or temperament that somehow gets generalized out to ALL women, and thus seems to feed into a feeling (by some) in the community that women don’t belong in science. Of course, that’s hogwash. Women (like men) belong wherever they feel they can make a contribution or an advance, science included.

Back when I was in graduate school we heard a lot of horror stories about female science students being mistreated, snubbed, or downright abused by male scientists (advisors, professors, fellow students). The worst usually involved some graduate advisor making advances at his student and if she didn’t comply, making it clear that she’d never graduate/advance. In one case, the guy actually went so far as to reserve a room for him and his student at a meeting (without her knowledge until she arrived at the hotel and was confronted with that nasty fact). Given stories like that, and so many others, I am surprised that anybody still wonders why women have a hard time getting taken seriously in science. Sure, science is a rigorous way of knowing things, and the classes can be difficult, but it’s not privileged knowledge that is preserved only for those who have certain chromosomal arrangements.

Things have improved since the days when women weren’t even allowed to go to college or vote, so I suppose that’s some consolation, but I still wonder why it is that many of these studies about women’s interests or advancement in science ALWAYS seem to come back to biology and temperament. As if certain arrangements of chromosomes and emotions are somehow wrong for science while others are “right.” Seems to me that passion and interest are the same, no matter what genes one bears. I doubt it enters anybody’s mind to question why more men don’t go into science. It would be interesting to see the results of a well-conducted survey, don’t you think?

Anyway, I thought it was interesting to read the article a week before the annual University of Massachusetts-Lowell-led Women in Science and Engineering Day, which is held every year at UMASS-Lowell. It’s a day when the organizers bring in middle-school girls from around the region to hear talks from female scientists, and participate in “hands-on” workshops in science-related careers. Sometimes the girls get to play “CSI” detective, in other workshops they learn about being a doctor or a pilot or science illustrator or museum curator or meteorologist. One year the woman who is president of iRobot, the ROOMBA folks, gave a talk, another year they had a pilot from Southwest Airlines. I’ve taught at the event a few times, leading girls through a series of writing projects where they take science press releases and turn them into stories for the media. It’s a lot of fun, very rewarding, and even their teachers get into the workshops. I always hope that a few of the girls will turn to science, once they realize that it’s not the domain of one gender or social class.

I’m not teaching it this year–too many conflicts, but I hope to do it again in the future. It’s a great thing, and I notice that a lot of universities do it. It’s kind of sobering to think that in these so-called “modern” times we still have to do stuff like this, but I guess we do.