Wednesday, August 13, 2008

An Addendum

Yesterday's post of "Where The Girls Are" missed out on including this video, because I just found it today. But I think it highlights some of the issues with why girls don't find math and hard sciences appealing, especially with Dr. Bonnie Bassler saying, "Women scientists have to achieve two and a half times what their male counterparts have to achieve to have the same credibility". 

I think women feel that sense of diminishment of their work and achievements and abilities in math and hard sciences without it having to always be overtly stated.

1 comment:

Jess said...

There was a Newsweek or Time article a few years back that dealt with women in science and math professions. One of the physicists responded similarly to the scientist in the video, saying that at one point in time she constantly thought about being a women scientist. Over time, she realized she was just far more interested in her work than mulling over how she was being adversely affected as a professional because she was a woman. I wonder if there is a correlation between more successful women scientists and how often they actively think about and address gender disparity. Is it possible that just getting on with their work will leave them less bogged down with feelings of inadequacy, or will they become further marginalized in their research if they don't address the issue from time to time?