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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

1/2 of all state schools have no girls sitting physics A level

391 replies

Himalaya · 03/10/2012 08:46

Shock

Just listening on the radio. Sad

Thoughts? Experience? Ideas?

OP posts:
TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 03/10/2012 22:02

I do agree that offering single sciences not combined at GCSE would be a big factor.

harbingerofdoom · 03/10/2012 22:06

Grimma, my DD would have loved to do geog/geol but her 4th AS had to be maths.
My DF still goes on about how important maths is-and he is right.
I really believe that unless we get the maths sorted, there will not be the numbers needed to diversify.
TBH why do the hardest subjects and earn half as much as a medic?

prettydaisies · 03/10/2012 22:12

DD does physics, further maths, geography and English lit. She is one of three girls in physics and the only girl in her further maths class. Geography is about half and half and English lit more girls than boys!
She is hoping to do earth sciences at university.

harbingerofdoom · 03/10/2012 22:22

prettyd what your DD is doing would not have been possible in DD's school. Many schools still can't do a science/arts mix on the timetable.
Is your DD in the state system?

kim147 · 03/10/2012 22:23

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ClaudiaCardinale · 03/10/2012 22:27

I am studying for a BSc in physics and I would say about 20% of my fellow students are female.

geegee888 · 03/10/2012 22:38

Is there any point taking physics though if you don't want to do a physics degree/become a physics teacher?

Yes, you need it to get into dentistry, medicine and engineering. I did it at Higher, and Highers in Physcis, Biology and Chemistry are really essential for getting into those courses. Since the majority of medical students are now female and increasing, it seems bizarre that this is an increasing concern, because clearly plenty of girls are succeeding in these subjects and getting into medical and dental degrees.

Its a fantastic subject, much more interesting than Biology and even better than Chemistry, which is pretty interesting. Its the background for understanding so many other subjects and applications.

What I've noticed is that in the UK at the moment, there seems to be a bizarre trend for thinking women shouldn't work, and all this nonsense thinking about women and Physics is part of it. Its like something out of the 19th Century. If you look at some of the posts on here, you will see what I mean. Its possibly a minority thing, exacerbated by those on the internet being more representative of the group as a whole. But obviously if you have parents who think like that, they are not likely to produce that many female children who buck the trend and want to study subjects like physics, when they have been brought up to aspire to not working.

I distinctly remember my mother telling the school "my daughter will not be wasting her school hours doing Home Economics and will be using the period for extra academic study instead" - they didn't argue with her.

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 03/10/2012 22:45

Umm - what, geegee?? Sure by definition a site called mumsnet will have majority posts from mums and mums with more time might make more posts, but SAHMs on MN usually worked first and may well work again in due course. I have rarely seen a "women shouldn't work" post on here, any that are a bit like that usually get shouted down.

ithinkimightbegoingmad · 03/10/2012 22:47

what trend of thinking women shouldnt work? who thinks that? Confused

cerealqueen · 03/10/2012 22:48

I really enjoyed physics and wanted to do physics O level but my mum said your brother found it hard, how on earth do you think you'll cope???

So I didn't do it. I still find it fascinating though and it would be great to answer DDs questions of why how etc with a bit of authority!!

morethanpotatoprints · 03/10/2012 22:48

Unless I am missing something here, surely if girls aren't interested in Physics they aren't going to choose it.
I'm all for encouraging all subjects but after that its their choice. Whats to say that some girls who take Physics or any other subject are not influenced by parents attitude/ mum or Dad did it, think I should or expect me to and they choose the subject. Its not always a negative that parents, peers or society have put their dcs off a subject.
There is no way I would have taken it as I found it so boring, so did my ds's and no doubt dd too. I think they should learn the basics as any other subject but don't see it as any more important than any other subject, including home economics.

ithinkimightbegoingmad · 03/10/2012 22:48

there are plenty of mums on this site who are doctors/ engineers etc geegee myself included

cerealqueen · 03/10/2012 22:50

Geegee - home economics is equally important, everybody should learn how to run a home and feed themselves well. Everybody.

harbingerofdoom · 03/10/2012 22:53

That's the problem, physics is not a requirement for medicine or dentistry. If it was needed,some of them might have become engineers!

nailak · 03/10/2012 23:03

how can you not do science at primary school?
you never learnt about materials? glass/wood/natural/man made?
floating and sinking?
the water cycle?
ecosystems? caterpillar turns in to butterfly etc?
seasons?
seeds?

GrimmaTheNome · 03/10/2012 23:04

Harbinger and prettyd - I know a young lady who did geog, phys, maths and (I think) Eng Lit, but anyway I'm sure her 4th A level was an Arts subject at a state school (excellent coed comp). She's just started a geog degree at camb. and wants to specialise in glaciology and the geography of other planets - easy to see how physics goes with that ambition! Smile

kim147 · 03/10/2012 23:05

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GrimmaTheNome · 03/10/2012 23:07

nailak - all that stuff is on the NC now (not sure if its staying there...). If anyones kids aren't being taught it at the moment there's something wrong.

I don't remember doing much science at primary when I was at school, but that was in the 60s.

GrimmaTheNome · 03/10/2012 23:09

kim...I am rather impressed by the emphasis on 'fair tests'. Understanding the scientific method - even for non-scientists - is surely very important.

selclare · 03/10/2012 23:11

I found physics really boring at school. I was really interested in chemistry myself, but my school didn't do A Levels in Chemistry so i couldn't do that. I can't recall if they even did Physics as an A Level without having to change schools (quite a few subjects required a change of sixth form for certain subjects and that wasn't something most of us fancied doing at that age). It was bad enough doing GCSE Double Science, when ideally i'd have liked to have chosen a specific part of Science to study, let alone then considering doing the as an A-Level in a specific area having never got the opportunity to study it in that much detail before...and i was in a top set (apparently that meant i was intelligent...so intelligent i refused to do the higher GCSE paper & opted to do the foundation paper. If it was in chemistry then fine, but the thought of getting a load of physics questions scared me enough into the refusal). School set ups were all wrong then. Not sure how they are now. This was 12 years ago!

harbingerofdoom · 03/10/2012 23:11

excellent coed comp , quite, how many of those around. Most 6th forms locally can't do a timetable mix like that.

kim147 · 03/10/2012 23:12

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geegee888 · 03/10/2012 23:13

Geegee - home economics is equally important, everybody should learn how to run a home and feed themselves well. Everybody

Oh, I've learnt that all right. And how to paint, tile and do rather a lot of DIY. I can also sew. I just didn't see the point of learning it in school time, its not an academic subject, and my immediate future was university, not running a home and baking. So glad I refused to do it, and never, ever regretted it.

IShallWearMidnight · 03/10/2012 23:16

Actually, thinking back, I wanted to do Physics at O grade (Scottish equivent of O level) and wasn't allowed to by my mum ( a teacher) who said that it didn't fit alongside my other options of French, German and music ( only had four options, plus English and maths). So I ended up doing history ( which I loved) but no science beyond the age of 13. Which is really sad.

kim147 · 03/10/2012 23:17

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