The Author – Bart Busschots
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Oct
20
Why Does the Gender Imbalance in The Sciences & IT Continue?
Filed Under Science & Astronomy, Computers & Tech on October 20, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I was invited to a careers fair organised by my old school yesterday. The idea was that past pupils would come back and be available to talk to current students and their parents about their experiences in further education and/or employment. I was past student number 78, and if memory serves, there were another five to ten past students after me on the list. For a school of about 600 students I was very impressed by those numbers. The place was also packed with interested students and parents so it was not only a good idea but also a success. I had a constant stream of students talking to me about the sciences and IT throughout the two hour event. The students were keen and enthusiastic, which was great to see. However, the students who spoke to me all had one other thing in common, they were all male.
I always hopped that as time went on the gender imbalance in the sciences and IT would sort itself out. I thought it was just a relic of long gone times that would automatically be corrected as the older generations were replaced by newer ones. That is plainly not the case in rural Ireland. I don’t think this imbalance is down to prejudices or uneven opportunities within these disciplines. That certainly was the case in the past but, I see no evidence of it now. So, it must be something else. I’ve been thinking about this all day, and I can only assume it has something to do with image. I guess school girls don’t see either science or computers as interesting. We’re going to have to change that, but I’ll be damed if I can see how. Anyone out there got any ideas?
Bart it all about roles models. They just want be famous and rich, and the way to that is bed a footballer, also they don associate a geek with being sexy( just look Buety and the Geek), they want some one strong to protect them, no some weed who send most the day in front of a computer.
Eh, you may be generalising *just* a touch there, Mach…
Hi Mach,
As Dave pointed out I think you’re generalizing to the point of ridiculousness. By your logic there should be no nerds at all. After all, guys are just in to sport and want to be the footballer that your hyper-stereotyped girls want to be.
You’re doing the female half of the species a terrible disservice by pretending that all girls think like the tabloids would have you think.
Bart.
Well that the way young girls ( ie 11 or 12 year olds you’ve got to get them young) see the world, also guys think more logical when sloving problems. I work in Tec support and there are an handfful of girls on my desk, I could cound them on one hand 80% of them are Team Leads( ie a admin posstion). It’s a know fact that womwn are bettera muititaksing thna guys.It not only sceince that male dominated , you have the construction industry, car industry, Poiltics.
It just women a good some thing and guys good an otheres, it’s hard wired in to us, men were hunters, we had to slove problems, women stay at home minded the children and cooked.
Mach, our DNA is not as absolute as you seem to thing. Certainly there is evidence that MOST women are better than MOST men at multi-tasking. However, there are individual men who are great at multitasking and individual women who are crap at it. These kinds of factors can result in some discrepancies but the 100% domination I saw at the fair.
Also, where I work we have two women and three blokes. One of those is my boss. There are plenty of women who are fantastic at IT and we are loosing out when young girls don’t even consider it.
Bart.
I agree that there some men who good multitasking and women who good problem solvers. As I said we need to get girls interest when they are young, What needs to be done is teach some sort CS course in secondary school, even is just a basic programming class .All the other sciences are taught why not CS? If look at most girls choose science as career end doing Chemistry or Biology, only a few go and do CS or Physics, that because Chemistry and Biology taught in secondary school, also they over lap Home Economics which is a mainly female subject. Lot people think physic is too hard as contain a lot maths, which CS also contains but not if I can do any one can.
The lack of any computer education at second level is indeed a serious problem. It just doesn’t make sense in this day and age.
Bart.
Hi! My daughter is studying computer science and loves the subject. She is a very capable student and gets top grades. However she is considering packing it in because of the sexist culture that exists in this field. She feels isolated and marginalised and as the only woman left in her course for final year is referred to as “the girl” and while her fellow students are happy to use her ideas are not as happy to share the credit for same. Sexist comments and lewd jokes are a daily occurence and her self esteem is suffering.
Other young women with equal talent have left for the same reason. Macho behaviour and isolation are the main problems. If this problem is not tackled at 3rd level the imbalance will continue in the wider industry which is not healthy if it only offers products for one gender!