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Guest post: "We need more female role models"

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MumsnetGuestPosts · 13/10/2015 11:30

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.

OP posts:
EBearhug · 13/10/2015 12:31

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.

I agree with this - a lot of STEM stuff focuses exclusively on girls, but we also need to make sure boys see women working in STEM workplaces as normal, so they don't feel the need to comment on it, or assume you must be in a non-technical role.

ArcheryAnnie · 13/10/2015 12:49

Same here, and totally agree - I've got a teenage son who is really interested in science, and if he goes into it as a career I don't want him to become one of those men that - deliberately or unthinkingly - drive women out of STEM workplaces!

LineyReborn · 13/10/2015 13:22

My son has just started sixth form. He says in his A level Physics class, there is only one girl out of 25. He is shocked. Also, he says he doesn't like being in such a massive male group. He prefers Biology where it's nearer 50:50.

MephistophelesApprentice · 13/10/2015 14:19

Perhaps, in addition to the excellent suggestions presented in the article, women could be taught to be gender neutral in their adoption of role models, rather than only regarding female ones as relevant to themselves.

ArcheryAnnie · 13/10/2015 15:07

Except, Mephistopheles, that puts the onus back on to what is "wrong" with girls, not what is wrong with the way that the brilliant women in STEM that already exist get represented.

The girls don't need fixing. The representation does.

SuwCharmanAnderson · 13/10/2015 15:16

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm glad to see that there's agreement over the need to expose boys to female role models as well as girls!

Last year, our flagship event was at the Royal Institution, and so we were able to put on a 'for schools' event in the afternoon as well as our evening event. I was delighted to see a pretty equal gender mix in the audience, with at least one all boys school bringing a party. I hope those boys will grow up to be men for whom seeing women in STEM is just a normal part of everyday life.

I also agree wholeheartedly with ArcheryAnnie - the answer is not to expect women to focus more on male role models. Firstly, the evidence shows that female role models do make a difference, and secondly, we've been forced to rely on male role models for centuries, and it clearly doesn't work very well!

What we need is a plurality of role models, which means a lot more women to balance out all the men that already exist!

scallopsrgreat · 13/10/2015 19:05

women could be taught to be gender neutral in their adoption of role models, rather than only regarding female ones as relevant to themselves. How about we reverse that for men. Do you think men could be taught to view female role models as relevant to themselves? Then we might actually get some parity.

Scoobydoo8 · 14/10/2015 08:36

I'm sure I've heard the presenters on Woman's Hour on Radio 4 do a 'hahaha, well I didn't understand a word of that ' comment whenever anything scientific or technical is explained. I'm sure I've heard Jane Garvey do this, I think Jenni Murray has more sense, though she too seems to have no interest in that type of stuff.

Likewise presenters on tv, even the Today programme, John Humphreys for one.

I see it as a 'hahaha well I didn't understand a word of that, but then I'm an interesting Arts Graduate/ intellectual and leave all that science stuff to nerds like you and the handful of listeners who might be interested .'

Things are changing with more science stuff on the radio and tv eg women on the Life Scientific, more interviewed on Desert Island Discs. But it's late in the day to start doing this.

SuwCharmanAnderson · 14/10/2015 11:32

Scoobydoo8, I think the propensity for people to do the "Ha ha ha, didn't understand a word of that" thing whenever there is something a bit sciency around is as much a problem of CP Snow's Two Cultures as it is issues around the relationship of women to STEM. I've heard men do it, though the gender difference to me seems to be that men do it with pride whilst women do it with embarrassment.

The fact that it happens at all is terrible. No one would profess pride in an inability to understand Shakespeare, for example, and yet there are still people who refuse to learn how to use email and wear it as a badge of honour.

The gendered component, I think, is that when women do it, and especially if they do it in public, they are reinforcing the stereotype that women aren't capable of understanding STEM. When men do it, they are just seen as one person who's behind the times. This is best illustrated, I think, by this XKCD comic, which is spot on:

xkcd.com/385/

EBearhug · 14/10/2015 23:29

No one would profess pride in an inability to understand Shakespeare
I've worked with people who do. "Why do you want to waste time with all that old-fashioned stuff?"

MephistophelesApprentice · 16/10/2015 11:15

Scallopsrgreat

From the study abstract: "gender did not determine the impact of role models on male participants."

scallopsrgreat · 17/10/2015 22:52

Hmm. So you think the answer is to teach women to admire yet more male role models? I think it's easier for the impact of female role models to not affect men because they have plenty of role models of their own sex to choose from. Of course having the odd female role model isn't going to have the same impact. And there will be an assumption on the part of men that there will be a male role model. Because there always is. Men haven't been told for centuries that they can't do things. Essentially they can afford to be generous in this aspect.

No wonder female role models have more of an impact on women. There are far fewer. The answer is not for women to ignore that and just think well it doesn't matter yet another a man will do. I can't believe anyone would suggest that as a solution. It's basically saying, ignore the discrimination you are witnessing.

MephistophelesApprentice · 18/10/2015 12:18

Actually the study seemed to indicate that for men, role models simply aren't hugely relevant; internalised confidence was more important rather than relying on the examples of others. Perhaps this is the sort of thing that could be taught - it could be that women have been socialised to struggle without the example of other women, rather than be independent in their ambitions.

scallopsrgreat · 19/10/2015 20:25

Perhaps, or perhaps the vast array of ready and available role models, the fact that men are everywhere and visible in power and men and boys are taught early on that their views matter, gives them internalised confidence.

But yes, carry on blaming women for their own oppression. If only women just behaved differently (perhaps more like men maybe - despite not having all the advantages) then they could have what men take for granted Hmm.

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