Boys left behind at school while girls get trip

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Recently my sons class went on an educational trip to a local university. But only the girls. The boys were left behind with a cover teacher listening to music and generally doing very little. My son is GCSE year and would have benefited from a computing and science event. No it was only for the girls with no mention of anything for the boys. I understand this was a STEM event for girls only but if there was a STEM event for boys only there would be uproar! AIBU?

The boys were left behind with a cover teacher listening to music and generally doing very little. My son is GCSE year and would have benefited from a computing and science event.

In GCSE year you might think they would take it as an opportunity to revise?

@sparklesocks I did a teaching assistant course and learned that anology. Equal opportunities doesn't mean equal treatment. Children with SEN need to be treated differently to have the same opportunities. As do females who are under represanted in the STEM fields.

DH works in a research lab, the lab head is female, out of the scientists doing working in there six are male, five are female. So with the boss that is a 50/50 split. No underrepresentation there at all.

Well gosh wombat that must mean women are not underrepresented in STEM any more. Unless that's not how data works.

Everyday is ‘Boys in STEM’ day. Nearly all our media, toys, adverts, real life heroes etc in STEM are targeted at men. If you took your son to any university STEM course, it will be filled with men who look just like him. Of course there is a special programme to reach underrepresented groups. The girls get ONE day and you are kicking off about your son being excluded. YABVVvVvU.

Do you also have an issue with black history month? BAME scholarships? You sound like the twitter trolls on international women’s day.

I am a female STEM academic. Men outnumber women in my department 1:10. I have to live with constant underlying sexism every single day. YABU.

@MrsTerryPratcett

I think the issue here is that the boys somehow weren't able to crack on with their own work while they were on their own. Or were they waiting for the girls to come back and do it for them?

Women are a minority group OP. Google what that means.

Oh brother.

YABU. It was to encourage girls to get into STEM, because they are dramatically unrepresented.

I feel so sorry for teachers who think outside the box, and use their time to work with kids to combat systemic inequality and social issues... just to have parents whine that the female advancement initiative didn't cater to their son.

Can't wait for the OP to apply to DD1's school on the basis that it is all girls and therefore boys are being left out of the opportunity to go there.

I think you know YABU about the event. It's fine to be annoyed about the standard of teaching for the boys left behind (if that is indeed accurate) but not about the trip. It's no secret that girls/women are underrepresented in STEM and anything that can be done to change that is a good thing.

Girls are a minority in STEM. a huge, huge minority. Yabu, and precious.

YABVU.

They do special talks featuring speakers from historically black universities in the local high school here (US).

My daughter would love to get out of English Lit and Composition next Tuesday and spend her time doodling on some brochures instead...

I do not believe this because if he is studying for gcses then he must have many different subject teachers surely? Very unlikely he will have spent all day listening to music with a cover teacher.

Why no events to encourage men to be midwives? Or nurses? Or admin staff?

If women don't want to do computing or science or engineering, are you going to force them just to up the numbers? It's gotten highly sexist now, my company actually offers more money to you if you put forward a female for a job than a male. That's sexism. But it's OK because it's against men.

YANBU,

It is really really important to get as many people into STEM as possible.

Whilst women are underrepresented in STEM and STEM events for girls are really important, we need more engineers, physicists and mathematicians in total.Our well educated parliamentarians who mostly would not know astronomy from astrology illustrate this.

The idea of encouraging boys out of STEM (as many above are suggesting) strikes me as cutting off your nose to spite your face.

There are lots of events (GCSE Science Live for one) where both sexes can attend but there are lots of fantastic female role models and scientists actively encouraging girls into STEM.

Punishing boys (and they will certainly see it that way) is not an effective way to address the sex imbalance in STEM and will encourage unhealthy relationships as this generation go into STEM careers.

I think this is only OK if there is another event which will encourage boys with regard to areas where boys tend to be weaker or underrepresented. Something related to "reading for pleasure" might be a good idea for boys.

My understanding is that women and girls are enthusiastic about many areas of STEM (genetics, medicine etc.) and are strongly represented in these areas these days. They aren't moving into engineering or astrophysics in any huge numbers, and probably never will, quite honestly. I'd be delighted if my own daughter wanted to go into a career like engineering, that said.

They are not preventing boys from going in to stem, just encouraging girls to go into stem. If you feel that your ds would benefit from some. Stem events do a search and take him along one. Weekend.

Yabu. Also if he is in GCSE year you need to tell him to get out of the mindset that "cover teacher = messing around". Work will have been set by the usual teacher and it's his responsibility to get it done.

Here’s a depressing statistic. In a recent survey at age 10, 66% of girls and 68% of boys said they were interested in science. By age 18, it’s 59% of girls and 70% of boys.

Trips like this are just trying to redress the balance.

Why no events to encourage men to be midwives? Or nurses? Or admin staff?

My son is a nurse. We had to complain to his school on multiple occasions because whenever he mentioned that's what he wanted to do some teachers would say "you don't, don't be daft. You're having a laugh now!" They would never have said that to a girl who wanted a career in STEM. He had more support and encouragement from 13yo boys than he did some of his teachers.

Last Summer the RCN asked if he'd go into schools with them to try to encourage men into nursing. They approached over 100 schools however only 4 took up the offer.

Problem is that choice of subjects is at quite a young age and then the path is set. It's amazing that kids don't always head for the most lucrative offer. Rather than choose something and then worry about the mortgage. I was clueless when I chose my low paid career, I wouldn't expect it much now.

Have you heard of Athena Swan?
www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/athena-swan/ it's a charter to advance the careers of women in stem. All universities are signed up to it and need to meet certain criterion. This includes outreach to schools. This will have been a combined initiative between the university and school. This is not the school thinking, I know let's plan a nice stem trip for the girls.

I used to work in a university stem department run by a woman. Women made up around 15% of the staff. In every job application about 10% were women.

You can want more for your son but this isn't about boys vs girls. If your son has a special interest in stem then great. Have you thought about signing him up to one of the coding clubs?