According to numerous forecasts and reports on the future of the labour market, IT specialists, programmers, engineers and automation specialists will soon be the most sought-after employees.
For example, according to the report “IT Market Snapshot Q2 2021”, only in the second quarter of this year, the number of job offers in IT increased by 13.1% compared to the first quarter. About 600,000 positions in this field are vacant across the European Union. In Poland alone – about 50 thousand specialists are needed.
Professions for which knowledge of science and technology is required are among the best paying jobs on the market. Unfortunately, these are also male dominated professions. Although women are slowly starting to fight for their place in such industries, they are still a minority in them. Why? Experts have no doubts: it is parents, school and social environment, sometimes consciously sometimes unconsciously, telling girls that mathematics, computer science, chemistry and physics are not for them.
Are the brains of boys and girls different? It’s neurosexism!
The harmful myth that the differences in the functioning of men and women are permanently embedded in their brains has been spread over the years by scientists themselves. The last time that a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania tried to prove it was in 2013. The scientific world is in turmoil, and neuroscientists from around the world are bashing their American colleagues. Criticising their research, they argued that differences in the structure of brains are not an innate feature, but an acquired one.
“We treat boys differently, girls differently, even when we find out about their sex during pregnancy. And the brain is very plastic. The stimuli that reach it change its architecture. It is only thanks to this that we are able to learn and adapt to new conditions. The question is, therefore, whether the results of Pennsylvania scientists showed an effect instead of a cause of social functioning in a male or female role,” commented Maria Pawłowska, PhD, who, commissioned by the Institute of Public Affairs, wrote the report “Female and male brains, or neurosexism in action and its social consequences”.
Replace the electrical outlet with your daughter
Subsequent studies since then have proved definitively that the brains of girls and boys are no different. This was confirmed, inter alia, in 2019 by Prof. Jessica Cantlon from the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The studies of her team included 104 children of both sexes aged 3 to 10 years, as well as 63 adults. The subjects watched videos of mathematical operations such as counting and addition, and were subjected to functional MRI of the brain at the same time. Scientists found no difference in their brains. Researchers also compared the results of a maths skills test taken by 100 children between the ages of 3 and 8. Again, no differences between girls and boys were noticed.
“Science denies popular myths. The chances of a career in STEM sciences do not depend on gender!” summed up Prof. Cantlon.
So what makes girls lose faith in their maths skills? Iwona Chmura-Rutkowska, an educator and sociologist, points out that girls rarely get construction toys, tools, and robots from their parents.
“When we see the adult beliefs behind it, we see their development-blocking power. Isn’t it because adults are convinced that men become engineers and programmers? And girls will need the ability to change a nappy more? Is it so hard to understand that a girl who an adult will never invite to see how to change a light bulb, an electric socket or let her try to drill a hole in the wall has no way of learning it?” asks Chmura-Rutkowska.
Reform textbooks
At school, the stereotype of a girl who should be more interested in humanities is even more perpetuated.
“The brilliant mathematicians, engineers, architects, builders mentioned in textbooks and films are almost always men. Teachers do not say directly: these professions are not for you. But girls realise that there are industries where men only work with men. If a girl has no other role models around her, e.g. an aunt who works as an IT specialist or a grandmother who was an architect, she becomes convinced that this is the order of the world. Women resign from entering certain environments because they are afraid that they will be left alone, all eyes will be focused on them, will be assessed in a special way and will have to prove that they are not worse,” argues Chmura-Rutkowska.
Renata Porębska, senior scientist at the ABB Corporate Technology Centre, creates new technologies for energy and robotics.
“First, I wanted to be a doctor, then a psychologist, and finally I applied for psychology. I lacked three points. In September, there were exams at the Cracow University of Technology. I wasn’t sure if this was the way for me. After all, I didn’t even take the maths exam in my A-levels, only biology! Besides, I did not know any female engineers and it seemed strange that I could find myself in such a profession,” says Porębska.
She got into the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and although she only wanted to stay a year there and then re-apply for psychology, her passion for material engineering was born during her studies. Now she cannot imagine herself in a different profession and encourages young engineers not to give up their chosen path. To this end, she co-organises an open day “Beautiful Sex, Beautiful Mind” for them at ABB.
Stereotypes paralyse
Anna Magdalena Rędzio devoted her doctoral dissertation, written at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Warsaw, to the phenomenon of stereotype threat – that is, a mental state in which an individual is afraid that they may confirm a negative stereotype about their social group or category. Usually it results in worse performance of tasks in the stereotyped field.
“Let’s assume that a girl decides to study mathematics despite her parents’ reluctance and awareness of the existence of gender stereotypes. In each test and exam, she tries her best to complete the tasks, but sometimes she is distracted by intrusive thoughts about the stereotype or the fear that if she does not do well, it will confirm the stereotype. This makes it impossible to concentrate solely on tasks. Perhaps because of this, the girl will not pass some of the exams and will be expelled from college, although she would have been able to do them, had it not been for the additional burden that her colleagues do not have. And even if not, she may at some point say that it costs her too much to prove at every step that women can also be good mathematicians, and she will quit her studies or choose the easiest specialisation,” argues Rędzio.
Either way, the girl will join the ranks of unfulfilled mathematicians, thus reinforcing the stereotype rather than undermining it.
“This may not only result in her personal failure, dissatisfaction with herself and her professional life, and a feeling of being unfulfilled. Her story may prove to be a ‘warning’ to other maths-minded and maths-skilled girls who will either not enrol in maths studies or repeat the story. And thus the vicious circle closes,” explains Rędzio.
Let’s promote role models
So what can you do to give your daughter a chance to develop mathematical competences? First, believe in her abilities and give her support.
“An adult who talks to the girl, listens to her, takes what she says seriously, exposes the system, and teaches critical thinking, undermining the rules and obvious facts, as well as harmful and unfair mechanisms can help. Unfortunately, only adults who think critically are ready to do so. We are not able to emancipate someone, being oppressed ourselves,” says Chmura-Rutkowska.
Secondly, girls’ natural curiosity should be nurtured from an early age, just like boys.
“Children love puzzles, ciphers, riddles, mazes. The most important task of an adult is to nurture the child’s natural curiosity and organise cognitive situations on a daily basis. It can be counting cars in the parking lot, stairs on the way home, forks in the kitchen drawer, and help in determining the proportions when baking a cake. In times of isolation, the closest environment may become the cognitive sphere of a child,” says Prof. Małgorzata Makiewicz from the University of Szczecin, a pedagogue specialising in the methodology of mathematical education.
In the case of teenagers, it should be checked what development opportunities are offered by knowledge of mathematics and science, and in which professions they can be useful. And promoting role models, that is women who have achieved success in the field of STEM – inventors, engineers, programmers, designers. Heroines who can become girls’ idols.
Author: Magdalena Warchala-Kopeć
Photo: pexels.com
The text was published on wysokie obcasy.pl on 9 October 2021
