sparkly labcoats

[No1blueengine]

I work for a major international financial institution. HR sponsor various special interest alliances within the company which lobby for their causes. One of the special interest alliances is "Women and Allies". It concerns itself with promoting equality in the workplace, etc etc.

They have managed to obtain some funding to host a STEM event. Women are hugely underrepresented in our actuarial and data analysis dept and the alliance would like to encourage girls and young women to consider careers in these fields. They have invited a boatload of girls from local secondary schools to attend one of our sites for an day long STEM event in September.

I received an invitation yesterday for my daughter(s). Apparently the girls will spend the morning decorating lab coats before hearing from a range of speakers about STEM careers.

Decorating lab coats. I shit you not.

My jaw hit the floor. i thought it must be joke but apparently it is not. I keep trying to draft an email to the organizers but i cant get past spluttering outrage. A (female) colleague cant see what i am getting upset about, though thinks the money could have been better spent on pay rises.

I think it is insulting to girls intelligence that the organizers felt they needed to offer this activity (and dedicate such a substantial amount of time to it) to get the girls to attend and reflects the influence of underlying stereotypes on their thinking.

My 14 y/o step daughter built a functional robot in school last term and my 7 y/o daughter is very excited to be going to learn to code in September. Somehow they were both excited by their projects without sparkly lab coat inducements.

Above-mentioned colleague thinks i am getting worked up over nothing. AIBU?

This has made me so mad WTAF?! who came up with this idea? some one actually thought the answer to 'how to get more women involved in STEM?' is give them 'pretty' lab coats??!! I literally despair

Soupforbrains very interested to see what they say

There's nothing wrong with them per se. There is something wrong with thinking that a significant amount of time at an event for girls in STEM should be spent 'decorating' anything. It's part of the whole idea that girls can only be interested in science if it's about making bath bombs, or engineering a doll's house or if the Lego is pink. I played with Lego and Meccano and it wasn't pink, and it didn't have Friends and I could build what I pleased rather than a nail bar or a cupcake shop.

DD wants a crystal making day with me, and to make a robot dog. She's working on some computer engineering with her DDad. If I let her blow stuff up or burn things, she would. She's a perfectly average kid who likes princesses as well.

As usual it's 'default' science is male and you have to add a bunch of frivolous bullshit to make it female. It's like eyelashes on female cartoon characters; weird and unnecessary.

Apparently I can only do 3 pics at a time. So here is the first bit of their response.

Here is the rest.

I'm interested in the details of this. If it's a quick ice breaker activity using sharpies and then keep the lab coats to wear a bit like name badges then I don't think it's that bad. If it's a long thing taking up loads of time using glitter and sparkles that's a different matter in my view.

I hope there are plenty of proper activities with actual science in them.

They say it's an icebreaker activity but it seems to take up most of the morning session. I personally just feel like if they want a souvenir give them a lab coat but there's just no need to waste time on the decoration however worthy the theme is, give them more time to discover STEM areas and do the actual science/maths/engineering which might actually make them think 'oh, I didn't know you could do this as a job and it's totally cool' which will actually give them that spark to start down a STEM career route.

sigh I don't even know if I'm expressing what I want to say as well as I could.

It's not that having a decorated lab-coat might not be cool, or in fact that the girls might not enjoy doing the activity of decorating it. It's just that it's a huge waste of time in what is actually a great opportunity. Much like a PP said about her daughters being told that 'actually girls can do science' or the time I recall when I was told that women didn't have to be homemakers and babymakers, that they could in fact have a career. Which are all sentiments which while well meant are actually pointless and sometimes actually damaging. What these days should focus on is just given girls the awareness of the ACTUAL FIELDS, in order to give them the opportunity to be inspired to go into them.

Less of the "Hi girls, you're girls and STEM really needs girls because girls are awesome too how about that! Did you know that make up uses SCIENCE?! Woah..."

And more "Hey, look at all this totally awesome stuff you can do. Wanna do it?"

But what is it teaching them? Science is fun? Do that trick with foam and hydrogen. That's fun. That science is decorative? Nope. Or if it is do patterns in mould in petri dishes or make crystals or dip roses in liquid nitrogen. That science is also for girls? Sometimes when you try to make a point you make the opposite point (eg Posh Spice).

There are better ways to do this.

X posted

No1blueengine I'm so sorry I hi-jacked your thread. It just made me so super ragey. I will get back in my box now

Fucking hell, no.

Chemist here. I would have lost the plot at this as a teen and it's so far beyond patronising now, it's not true. They're as like to disengage the girls interested in the fields as engage others.

FGS, if they have to 'girlify' it, it's not even a good choice of theme. There are so, SO many they could do to try to capture the pink princesses' attention that would at least be actual science rather than twaddle. How about looking at nail polish and why it breaks down for acetone not water, for example? Hair dye? Perfume? Skin care etc etc. If they have to patronise, at least patronise with something that has application to the field.

Hell, if they MUST decorate the lab coat, at least have them make the damn dye first!!

It's just pathetic.

I agree. A souvenir could be a photo of an experiment. Or a testtube. Icebreaker my arse.

I fear I condemn Jelena straight off for using the wanky "reach out" when she means "contact". However, putting that aside, I just don't understand how writing and drawing stuff about science on lab coats helps anyone, male or female to build confidence. Surely getting them to do science stuff is a far better way of achieving that.

She also suggests that the coats get taken home and treasured: I would love to know what her evidence for that is. I suspect the reality is that they get thrown in the washing machine and everything comes off, or they end up in a dusty heap under the kid's bed. Again, if they were actually encouraged to make something useful, that would be far more worthy of being taken home.

Less of the "Hi girls, you're girls and STEM really needs girls because girls are awesome too how about that! Did you know that make up uses SCIENCE?! Woah..."

And more "Hey, look at all this totally awesome stuff you can do. Wanna do it

Exactly this tweet demonstrates that first approach perfectly.

Hey Girls! Did you know Cooking is Science?!

Because all girls will relate to cooking of course.

Haven't RTFT but it's a bit of a stretch calling decorating clothes a STEM event isn't it. How disappointing.

I would, however, love a sparkly lab coat.

But what is it teaching them?

I'd assume it's an activity that they are doing while they are also discussing what STEM means to them etc etc. I can see the value of it I suppose as long as it doesn't take long. The lab coats in the photos look like they were done quickly. It might be one of those things they start doing as soon as they arrive so that the girls can get on a do something immediately while waiting for everyone to arrive.

I think their description of using it as an icebreaker seems reasonable.

I promise I will shut up soon but I'm composing my response to Jelena. Here is it so far. Anyone else want to chip in?

"I'm glad you are so enthusiastic in your work. As you say it's an incredibly important area. Promoting STEM subjects and careers is extremely important but I can't help but feel that wasting time on decorating lab coats is not the best use of resources or time on days like those your organisation runs.

Aside from the fact that a lab coat is lazy stereotyping for what STEM is, surely an un-tarnished lab-coat would be a good souvenir AND would be something they could actually use going forward with their STEM interests.

Sometimes the more you try to reinforce a message the more the opposite message gets through. By over-doing that girls can or should do STEM and that they need to build their confidence. You are actually telling them that the default is that they can't/shouldn't do STEM or that they shouldn't have confidence. Young girls don't know that they may be at a disadvantage in STEM areas unless you tell them.

Initiatives like yours are excellent. Don't get me wrong I whole heartedly approve. I just think that you should scrap the coat decorating and dedicate more time to showing the girls "look at all this awesome stuff you can do. Go ahead."

I'd like to highlight that I am not alone in holding this opinion on, that I have discussed this with many other women in STEM including those who run similar initiatives to yours and STEM ambassadors. The general concernais is that decorating lab coats is at best a waste of time, and at worst patronising and inadvertently reinforcing stereotypes. "

And today I am because they're meant to be doing science
(or technology or engineering or maths)
Not art

And thanks to this thread I've just bought great women who changed the world to inspire DD and DS too.
Dd wants to be a scientist or an engineer (and I love the guy next door who told her she could probably do a job combining both when she told him). DS wants to be (and probably already is) a professional you tuber.

And thanks to this thread I've just bought great women who changed the world to inspire DD and DS too.
Dd wants to be a scientist or an engineer (and I love the guy next door who told her she could probably do a job combining both when she told him). DS wants to be (and probably already is) a professional you tuber.

I also think before rage descends this needs more research. The photos are mainly of girls personalising lab coats which I totally get the concept of. I actually get that it makes them put their personality into a lab coat and thus associate with it...and I assume the coats are for the type of activities they are going to do. I assume they then get to take them home. Maybe they draw flowers on them, maybe they drawn astronauts - its their choice of who to become....
It also acts as an ice breaker and adds to the theatre of the event.
I did O and A level sciences and a science degree and yes we all decorated our lab coats. They were then uniquely ours. They had our personality and later, unique acid holes and stains. We used marker pens and draw pictures all over them. They also never then got lost or mixed up. I kept mine for years as a result.
The concept is quirky but the girls in the photos look like they are loving the day.
This is not aimed at 7 year olds, but at 11+ who may well already have decided that science is not for them. By presenting it is a different way, maybe they will look at it differently.
BTW I am passionate about girls and equality, but also work with girls in a sports setting and the issue is complex.

Excellent soup just a spelling - consensus

We all need to slip this stuff in organically. Like this morning DD was chatting about storm troopers and their uniforms. And what they were made off. I said, "well there is a material that is so strong it can stop bullets, do you want to see a picture of the scientist that invented it?".

So I get to show her a female scientist without having a big signpost! She gets the message that women are inventing things, without talking about 'women scientists' like they're an odd addition.

I haven't read all replies but as someone currently deciding on safety boots this gives me the rage. The only issue is I have small feet and therefore the million squillion pairs on site are all too big. Yes I considered the aesthetic but sparkly wasn't what I was looking for.

This kinda shit doesn't help the chauvinists in STEM either! If asked at an interview for an apprenticeship or college or uni a girl says I went to a brilliant women in STEM event I decorated a lovely lab coat it will impress no one.

soup I would also query if decorating labcoats is something it would even occur to them to get boys to do.