Why?

“Are you sure about engineering and physics? How about something like nursing or teaching?”

This is a question I still hear today. It is already awkward enough to spend my mechanics class with only a few other girls, let’s not talk about the career meetings at school, that my day is sprinkled with these questions. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think one career path is superior to another. But these careers are just not for me; think of a musician studying law. Like a musician, I find sweet melodies in the equations that govern the [multi/uni]verse, and I wouldn’t want to spend my time studying anything else. Naturally, I just cringe when someone tries to question my interests with my gender. Why?

Right now, women have more freedom and power than any other time in history. Most of the countries give women the right to vote, own property, and drive -- most things women couldn’t do just 100 years ago. However, it still strikes me how people’s perception, habits, and expectations changes as per gender. There are many factors leading to these stereotypes, particularly for girls studying the hard sciences (engineering, physics, and computer science). According to me, these stereotypes are not noticeable in the 21st century. They are tiny things we barely notice:

• Boys being rewarded for spontaneous self-dictated behaviours, girls being awarded for learnt behaviours.
• Boys are expected to be leaders, girls are expected to be care givers. In fact, there was a study conducted on Harvard business school students called “Heidi-Howard”(1) where Heidi is a real life successful silicon valley entrepreneur. Half of the students were asked to evaluate her. The same case study was given to the students with only one change: Heidi changed to Howard. Both Heidi and Howard were given equal rating of competency, but Howard’s personality was rated as much more appealing than Heidi’s. A strong woman leader is automatically disliked.
• Toys are literally teaching children stereotypes; boys are given cars and building blocks while girls are given barbies and kitchen sets. These are the first “occupations” children have, which are basically geared to the traditional jobs.
• Women who work full-time still do more housework and child care than their partners.

To me, all of these points add onto the idea of women being incapable of thinking dynamically, diversely, and critically in math and physics; they make girls lose interest in the hard sciences before they even have the chance of really experiencing it. In my series of articles, I want to explore these -- and many other -- stereotypes in more details. In addition, a point many overlook, women are also partially responsible for these stereotypes. Girls create the whole highschool ‘queen’ scenario, where they place the most beautiful girl as the ‘queen’ while nerdy smart girls are kept in a social isolation. I can’t say I have the answers to dissolving all these problems, but I just hope to add another perspective and voice to the international debate.