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Asked by 268spea48 to Francesca, Laura, Matthew, Andrew, Rebecca on 7 Nov 2014.
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Matthew Camilleri answered on 7 Nov 2014:
Historically, the scientist was normally a male person doing research, which normally focused on trying to change lead to gold. Luckily, this perception has changed over the last couple of 100 years, and although the scientific fields tend to have more males then females the gender gap is being reduced.
Trying to promote STEM subjects to kids is a great way to get people to join these subjects, both girls and boys. Ofc, in order to try and be neutral and get both sexes to choose these subjects STEM ambassadors should be equally mixed, having a decent number of both males and females. Girls are more likely to choose STEM subjects if they see other females in scientific careers.
Personally I think it would be a mistake to alienate the male population in order to try and get more females into STEM subjects as at the end of the day the numbers of science students are declining, especially fro male students. The aim should be to try and get more students into science subjects irrespective of their gender, and by making science subject viable for both sexes, then the natural order of things should hopefully balance out in a similar number of girls and boys choosing STEM subjects
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Francesca Palombo answered on 8 Nov 2014:
I would just say to be brave and persevere if they find that STEM is their way
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Laura Schofield answered on 8 Nov 2014:
Hi 268spea48. I have to agree with Matthew here and say that while it is important to get girls into STEM subjects, we also want boys too! The important thing we are trying to do with our current outreach programmes is making sure that we make the subjects accessible for ALL students who love them.
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Andrew McKinley answered on 10 Nov 2014:
That is a really good question, and one that has no easy answer. It is true that “recruitment” activities aimed at a particular gender are less successful, so our recruitment must be independent of gender.
I think positive female role models are important, and I don’t just mean STEM role models; I mean all women. In STEM we have some fantastic female role models, but we need the support of women outside STEM also – you don’t need to be a scientist to be supportive of STEM.
The number of discoveries by female scientists is huge – yes, less than the men, but have historically been fewer women in science, largely due to flawed perspectives of women’s place in society. (remember that it is less than 100 years since women were allowed to vote in the UK!). It was a woman who made it possible to discover the double helix (Rosalind Franklin), it was a woman who was the first to win two Nobel prizes in two different disciplines (Marie Curie, Chemistry and Physics), it was a woman who discovered pulsars (effectively interstellar time-clocks) in our universe (Jocelyn Bell – as a PhD student, no less!). All of this work was honoured by a Nobel Prize, however it is unfortunate that, due to technicalities, neither Franklind nor Bell were recipients of the prize which their discoveries earned.
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Rebecca Ingle answered on 11 Nov 2014:
I definitely agree with Andrew that a lot of people just aren’t aware of many of the great female scientists out there across a whole range of fields – from Ada Lovelace to Maria Goeppert-Mayer, which is a shame as it feeds this completely nonsense idea that ‘women can’t do science.’
I think outreach is a good way forward, getting both boys and girls to realise how valuable a science degree can be (even if maybe you don’t end up being a scientist in the end.) Good teaching is schools though is absolutely vital and a good teacher can give students the confidence and inspiration to keep pursuing subjects completely regardless of gender, and maybe even encourage people who are capable but not confident enough to study something as well.
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