Women in Science
Now that it’s finally spring break, I can relax and address an issue that has
been in the news recently, the comments made by Harvard’s president regarding
women in the sciences. It’s a well-known
fact that women aren’t as represented as men in the sciences, particularly in
physics. However, as a female hoping to
become a physicist, I also reject the notion that there are innate differences
the preclude women from succeeding in the scientific realms. I don’t mean to say that women and men are
precisely equal in every manner; common experience reveals that there are
differences between the genders. Women
and men think and react differently, but I do not believe that these
differences are equivalent to the claim that women and men are biologically
designed to succeed in different fields.
In fact, I believe that a successful field should have a balance of
diverse thought processes, because this would lead to deeper insights as the
different thought processes interact, and I certainly reject the notion that
these different thought processes and reactions make one gender superior to the
other.
In
a society that considers itself egalitarian, however, how do we reconcile the
fact that there are fewer women in the sciences with the notion that all are
inherently equal? Can we place the blame
solely on social factors, and if so, how can we change society to promote
women’s expansion into the sciences? I
have three thoughts on this subject-
1) Patience
is required.
2) Having
noted the need for patience, the fact that we’re still engaging in this debate
shows that society still has not fully accepted women’s entrance into the
scientific fields. The fact that even
now, in 2005, the president of one of the nation’s most prestigious
universities encourages the notion that women just can’t do the hard sciences
and engineering, shows that society still retains lingering fringes of
inequality. How can we think that women
will be encouraged to enter the sciences when the president of Harvard is
telling them that they can’t do it? The
most dangerous attack to women contemplating entering the sciences isn’t
official regulations, which have virtually all been eradicated, but attacks on
their belief that they can succeed. From
middle school onward, women are inundated with the message the science is a
man’s realm of study, and they are encouraged to enter more ‘womanly’ fields
such as English and the humanities.
While I fully encourage women pursuing positions in those fields (once I
dreamed of being an author), it should not be at the expense of science. However, it is difficult to identify the root
of the problem, particularly since many women just decide that they’d rather
pursue those other options than the sciences, and not that they can’t succeed
in the sciences. So, an important
question is why do women choose not to follow careers in the sciences?
There
are many reasons why. One of the most
widely toted is that women quite simply don’t want to put in the many long
years that it takes to be successful in the sciences. I think this is a valid point, particularly
in physics. To be a theoretical
physicist, a doctorate and university post is virtually required. This takes up a large portion of a woman’s
time, particularly when she may want to raise a family. Unfortunately, there are no simple solutions
to this problem. It is vitally important
for children to have at least one parent who isn’t a workaholic, and typically
this parent is the mother. One solution
could be to encourage more stay-at-home fathers, to free the mothers to pursue
careers. I think, though, a better
solution would be to reformat the structuring of the sciences. I think we need to encourage more benefits
for female professors, such as longer maternity leaves, and take advantage of
the benefits of a mobile society. With
the internet being so pervasive, it is possible for someone to remain
up-to-date on the work of colleagues, at the university and elsewhere, without
physically being on the university. In fact,
it could even be possible for a theoretical physicist to be completely separate
from the university, and only engage with other faculty via the internet. Imagine the possibilities- a mother could
work on a paper on string theory while her child naps, and then send it to a
colleague before supper. So, my solution
to this problem would to decrease hours and increase time off for professors,
to rectify the problem of having both a family and a career. Also, the faculty in the sciences need to be
more receptive to people taking a leave between stages of their education, such
as between finishing their doctorate and attaining a university post, so that
women can take a year or two off to stay at home without worrying about future
repercussions on their careers.
However,
this is by far not the only social force pushing women away from the sciences,
nor is it even the most potent. By far
the strongest, in my humble opinion, is the belief that women just can’t
succeed. Who knows how many aspiring
female engineers and scientists are questioning their abilities in light of
what Harvard president Larry Summer has said.
Regardless of the precise number, it’s too many. Women should never question their ability to
enter a field solely because of their gender.
This belief that they can’t do it, or that it would be easier if they
pursue some other career path, combined with the competing interests of a
family and social life, is what drives women away from the sciences and
engineering. Unfortunately, it’s virtually
impossible to free society from the shackles errant beliefs- look at how
diligently racism persists, even after the Civil War and the Civil Rights
Movement, and there is no easy solution.
The best solution at present is to encourage women to pursue their
dreams, including in the sciences, and to refuse to tolerate those who say
otherwise. As to Larry Summers, after he
leaves Harvard, perhaps he should travel to one of the nations overseas where
females regularly outperform males in math.
However, the encouragement must be sincere, and not of the “let’s put up
posters that say they can do whatever they want’ type. Posters rarely inspire people to pursue a
career, but an influential person, such as a teacher or parent, who encourages
and inspires a woman to ponder the fundamental questions of the universe,
can. Encouraging women to be physicists,
or engineers, or whatever won’t work; you have to interest them in the
fundamental questions that those professions answer. If women aren’t interested in chemistry,
biology, etc, she’s eventually going to reach a point where she realizes that,
despite all the encouragement to enter into a scientific profession, she
doesn’t want to. So, let’s encourage
women to think about things such as how gravity works, or how electricity
powers things, or how fire creates ash.
Give girls science kits and let them explore the scientific around them,
and tell those who discourage women from using their minds to their fullest
potential to watch them discover. The
best solution is simply to discuss science with girls, and let their
inquisitive minds pursue it, free from negative influences that cause them to
doubt whether they can actually succeed.
3) Of
course, having said all of that, there’s one other point that must be made,
which is to decrease our society’s focus on gender. Yes, continue to track statistics and make
sure that women are being encouraged, but for goodness sake quit harping on
this dead horse. Each time it comes up,
it reopens the debate in every girl’s mind.
What if the other side is actually right? What if I can’t do it? What if all the guys are better at it than I
am? Maybe I should just be a humanities major instead, just in case the other side is
right. After all, I sort of like
English…anthropology isn’t all that different than
biology… The last thing
we need are aspiring female scientists asking these questions constantly
because the debate won’t go away. The
solution I mentioned above, to encourage women in science, means inspiring
them- something that should be done for every child, male or female. Give girls and boys science kits, and don’t
make the girls feel singled out because of their gender. If we treat gender as if it is significant,
it will become significant to the women, but if we act as though it doesn’t
matter, then it won’t in their minds.
And when it doesn’t matter to them, they will pursue the sciences as
they desire, unhindered by beliefs that they can’t succeed because of their
gender.
So, my solution is this-
Inspire
women by encouraging them to contemplate scientific questions, without focusing
on their gender, and remove influences that cause them to focus on their gender
and wonder whether that can influence their scientific abilities. Reduce the factors that cause scientific
careers to conflict with things such as a raising a family, so that family
concerns won’t prevent women from pursuing their scientific curiosity. Finally, patiently wait for the effects of
these factors to emerge.
(Note: I do advocate that there are
differences between the genders, which are theologically relevant, but I don’t
think these extend into the realm of math and physics.)