The lack of female role models in STEM subjects is a major obstacle to girls pursuing careers in these traditionally 'male' areas.
We know that teenage girls tend to idolise famous women – for better or worse – but this need for female role models is backed up by research: as the University of Toronto's Dr Penelope Lockwood found, women are motivated by same-gender role models in a way men just aren't.
Women's very self-perception is affected by knowledge of other women's success. In Lockwood's study, women were more likely to rate themselves positively after reading an account of a female professional. Men's self-perception, on the other hand, was unaffected by reading about either gender.
If we are to encourage girls to go into STEM subjects, we need to show them women who have been there and done that – but this is no mean feat. I stumbled on Lockwood's work in 2009, just as I was building up a good head of anger at the lack of women speaking at tech conferences. For several years, I had noticed that few, if any, women were being given the opportunity to share their expertise on stage, even at major conferences.
Talking to other people working in the industry led to the conclusion that the problem was women's visibility - or, more precisely, their invisibility. Even women who were alert to the problem struggled to think of more than two or three women they could imagine seeing on stage. Few of us could think of real luminaries.
This lack of role models is a problem. Girls and women rarely get to see themselves reflected in those scientists or engineers, for example, who do make it into the public sphere, whether that's at conferences, in newspapers, or on TV.
The problem is even worse if you're part of a minority, of any sort. If you're not white, or not heterosexual, or you have a disability, the chances of you ever seeing a woman in STEM who looks like you is slim. Girls and women don't just lack role models, we lack a healthy plurality of role models.
How do we change this? Of course, the media and the education system need to represent both women and STEM a lot better. But there is a simple, more immediate action that we can all take: talk more about the achievements of women in STEM. Talk to daughters, cousins, nieces, mothers, sisters, colleagues, friends, men, boys, everyone.
That is, fundamentally, what Ada Lovelace Day is all about. Ada Lovelace is widely held to be the first computer programmer, and each year people around the world put on their own independent events to celebrate the achievements of women in STEM. This year, are over 130 events in 19 countries across all seven continents, and each one helps to create new role models for girls and women.
At an individual level, girls face a lot of peer pressure to abandon any interest in STEM that they may have, but evidence shows that the most important indicator of whether a girl will go on to have a career in STEM is her parents' 'STEM capital'. You don't need to be working in STEM to achieve that, it's much more about creating a family culture of curiosity, regularly talking about STEM and creating an environment where STEM is just a normal part of everyday life. There are a number of resources online to help parents encourage their daughters to explore STEM subjects, and we at Ada Lovelace Day have produced two ebooks with women role models as well a Key Stage 3 education pack.
But it's important to encourage girls' curiosity all year round, not just on Ada Lovelace Day. This might be as simple as choosing STEM-related books which heavily feature women, buying STEM gifts, or watching documentaries that feature women in STEM either as experts, subjects or presenters.
Finally, this might sound very much like an issue that parents of boys don't need to worry about, but I would encourage all parents with sons to engage with female role models too. If girls need female role models to understand that they can be successful in STEM, boys need female role models to help them understand that girls and women who are interested in STEM aren't weird, they're normal. Because we are.
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