Earth Needs More Women (In Technical Fields)!

It's been an Oscar tradition for years (decades, probably) to send a beautiful Hollywood actress to host the Scientific and Technical Awards portion ahead of the main event. I always get a kick out of seeing who draws that duty each year - this time it was the lovely Elizabeth Banks, recently seen opposite Oscar co-host Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock - but what really struck me was the shot they showed from the banquet. There's Ms Banks with dozens of award winners arrayed around her... and not a single one of them was female! I think in past years it may have been much the same, which is why a "babe" is usually chosen to do the honours there. If it had been an aberrant occurrence, then it wouldn't be such a big deal. But I saw that image of zero women within a group representing scientific excellence in the motion picture arts, and despaired.

What can we do to get girls interested in Science, Math and Engineering (because it's obviously not happening)? Half of our population is non-male, which means we're under-utilizing our brain potential as a society if significantly less than 50% of the species is pursuing those disciplines, as seems to be the case. We need to correct that. We need to encourage girls to be "technical" instead of assuming that it's a male field. As a Math tutor, I've come to believe that just about anyone can be strong in Math through to the high school level at least, given the right environment, inspiration and encouragement. But as soon as a youngster starts to struggle with this Math concept or that one, some parents immediately say, "Well, I guess he/she's just no good at Math" and consign their child to a future that doesn't include any of the technical fields mentioned above. It seems to happen more with girls than boys because of long-held prejudices that stopped making sense (if they ever did) once women entered the work force big-time in the 60s and 70s. Those outdated views are likely still contributing to the lop-sided gender balance in those occupations, but they need to go the way of the Dodo bird. Whatever the cause, it's really in our best interests to change that situation for the better.

I get into this topic in more detail in No Kid of Ours is Failing at Math (How Parents Can Help), although I don't specifically call it out as a gender-based problem. Too many boys are also falling behind in Math these days for it to be a "girls only" issue, after all. But as parents, we should be particularly watchful that we don't pigeon-hole our daughters outside of those fields that always need more insightful, intelligent contributors. It's a disservice to them, and to our species.