Female role models who work in STEM careers

[Missandra]

I really hope you don’t mind me asking this.

I work in education. I don’t work in a school but deliver work shops and similar to primary schools.

I am developing a program of activities to deliver to primary school girls with the aim of encouraging more girls to consider STEM careers in the future. I know it’s very young for them to think about careers but all the studies I’ve read show that children can have very fixed stereotypical ideas about the sexes by the time they are in Year 6. My hope is to challenge this by showing them how exciting the STEM subjects can be. Girls are so unrepresented in the world of STEM.

I am looking for female role models that I can talk about but they need to be as young as possible because I want them to be relatable. I can think of lots of amazing older woman but despite a lot of searching I’ve hardly come up with any. The only one I can find is a young teenage girl who has joined the NASA cadets, she was feature in a cbc programme a while ago.

I’ve fought so hard to get funding and feel so passionately about it I really want to get this right.

I would be wary of focussing too much on the "young" aspect...if they are in primary school then anyone over the age of twenty or so will seem ancient to them! There is a documentary on the Disney plus streaming site called "science fair" which might be of interest? I haven't watched it but it's about high school children competing for a really prestigious science award in the US so might be good at showing how fun/competitive "geeky" things can be too....

Wow thank you for all your response. Some really good and valuable points that I will take on board and I will also have a look at the links and suggestions.

This is why I knew it would be a good idea to ask on here. I work with a lot of people who at best just humor me when it comes to my feminism. I’ve even had one male staff member complain about me “excluding” boys. So talking about this with women who get it is really helpful.

I’ve got a lot to learn but I feel very passionate about it so I’m determined to get it right.

Thank you all

No - thank you, for working on this.

One other pitfall to beware of Missandra is what a friend of mine in the bike industry calls "pink it and shrink it."

Our LEA runs a scheme in conjunction with the local university's education department to run enrichment days for primary school children, and for the most part they're brilliant.

But... (You knew there was a but coming). A few years back I went to pick DS up from one of these, a day on code breaking. As I waited, I bumped into a couple of friends (other mums) - between us we have PhDs in theoretical physics, applied maths and pure maths from various very prestigious universities. We sat there in horror as the kids trooped out from this event - about 50 of them, with 2 girls! Then the other event let out its kids - almost all girls. It turned out it was a "discover chemistry through making bath bombs" event.

What I've wondered ever since was where the bias was creeping in? The invitations were just blanket invitations to schools saying "put your pupils forward for this." My DS's school then pre-selected pupils by saying "I think your DC might be interested in this in particular." So it's possible the bias was at the level of the teachers. Or it could have been at the level of parents or the children themselves - the school maybe targeted girls and boys evenly, but the girls were opting for bath bombs.

But in your situation I'd be aware that as you try to make this a bigger thing, you may encounter people who's instinct is "pink it and shrink it." Try to keep it pitched as "interesting stuff" rather than "here's how to pick girly interests and shoehorn some science in there."

(Incidentally overall it was a brilliant initiative - DS also went on a day on sports journalism, which was followed up with a trip to see our local rugby club and write a match report.)

girlswhocode.com/en-uk

Missandra
Are you on Psci-Comm or BIGCHAT
as both of them have information that might help

The updated cosmos series tells the story of the female astronomers who figured out how stars worked like 100 years ago. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_the_Sun

This years chem Nobel is For Bio-engineering (CRISPR) and 2 women co-won.

I concur with others, contact any local U and you’ll be able to find a young woman Scientist to come talk to your students!!

This years chem Nobel is For Bio-engineering (CRISPR) and 2 women co-won.

Also a woman was one of the three winners of this year's physics Nobel.

As above, get in touch with STEM ambassadors. It's a national programme and your best shot at reaching women in stem who are passionate about raising public awareness.

Young ones are trickier to find as it seems to take a long time to get recognition.

Keep using the older STEM examples and try to use examples of those who enable and promote the progression of Gender Equality.

Katherine Johnson is a great example for STEM

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a great example of Gender Equality.

They go hand in hand to progress these issues.

This may also help

www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Called-Katherine-Johnson-America/dp/0316435171/ref=nodl_

A fun game to play with kids is get them to draw pictures of professions that are male and female dominated and see who they draw.

Racing driver

Lorry driver

Banker

Doctor

Then ask them to draw

Librarian

Nurse

Teacher

They are likely to be influenced on gender and career options from an early age

Personally, I think I'd try to focus on examples from my own country as far as possible. If you're in a U.K. school, American examples may seem a bit too different or exotic. Apart from the local schools/uni, if you want the metaphorical and literal high flyers there are homegrown historical examples for the chemistry Nobel prize and first British astronaut for instance.

I agree with avoiding super famous scientists. One of the problems for women in STEM is the excessive value put on individual brilliance. Almost no one is brilliant. The lone genius trope discourages team work and collaboration (which women are socialised to be good at) and encourages back-stabbing and egos and long family-unfriendly hours. It also means that more self-critical self-doubting students who don't fit this aggressive stereotype (read, women) don't get support because their faces don't fit. They quit, just like the girls who don't take maths at A-level.

I do school outreach via Skype-a-scientist for some quite young kids. I think seeing an ordinary woman who gets excited about her research like a geeky eight year old is good for them. It's also actually good for me, because even if the dickheads in my field don't care because I'm female, if an eight year old cares, what I'm doing is actually cool! So maybe try contacting some local universities. Pint of science is a good start, or just email some scientists and engineers who's work you genuinely think is cool. The worst they'll do is ignore you.

Chemistry is just cooking and blowing things up

Might be worth checking back through this list for a few ideas
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_Scientific

I’ve even had one male staff member complain about me “excluding” boys.

Make sure they're not excluded. It's important for boys to learn it's entirely normal to have women in STEM workplaces.

If you can bear getting onto Twitter OP maybe check out #WomeninSTEM and "iamabiologist - the latter will give you recent examples in varied fields, you could pick out the women and maybe find some local examples. It's trending as it's Biology Week.

PS
I was at school with one of the women interviewed by Jim
and she came over exactly as her
just as arrogant and rude and making no mention of people who helped her
Interestingly her married name appears NOWHERE
so she can disappear when she does not want to be a famous scientist

Maggie Aderin Pocock is lovely. Dyslexic too. Shes a british space scientist, does sky at night and is in to education, as in has an MBE for her contribution

Hannah Fry. She did the Christmas Lectures last year. DS made sure to get a signed book when she spoke at his uni.

I think female role models/representation are really important. I used to run Code Club at my last school and was known as the computer person. I'm sure it encouraged more girls to go. Conversely a male teacher was an amazing performing arts specialist and every year got all the boys in his class dancing.

Katie Steckles is a young, cool mathematician.

Genetic scissors

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2020/10/7/nobel-prize-for-chemistry-awarded-to-charpentier-and-doudna

I'd recommend getting in touch with the Institute of Physics as well as STEM Ambassadors. They've got a wealth of resources for this. They did a huge study on why girls don't choose physics, a few years back. You have to catch them very young to pique interest in this sort of subject i.e. eight years old, so all of these workshops in Year 8 or 10 are too late. I must admit, I'd be pushing the physics/maths/engineering side more, since bio-anything has much less of an image problem when attracting girls.

Emmanuelle Charpentier.

She’s one of the two women who won the Nobel prize for chemistry but has spoken out about the importance of engaging girls in STEM.

Clip of her this week here:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54432589

@EBearhug

I’ve even had one male staff member complain about me “excluding” boys.

Make sure they're not excluded. It's important for boys to learn it's entirely normal to have women in STEM workplaces.

Excellent point!

@EBearhug

I’ve even had one male staff member complain about me “excluding” boys.

Make sure they're not excluded. It's important for boys to learn it's entirely normal to have women in STEM workplaces.

Up until now all our sessions have been for both girls and boys and we will still continue with these. The reason I’ve opted to run the girls only sessions is because when we’re doing any group science or engineering challenges the boys tend to take over and the girls then lose interest. I’ve done a lot of reading on this and it’s something that is often commented on when discussing the benefits of girls only sessions.

But I do agree that boys also need to learn that STEM is for girls too.