Originally posted June 9, 2010

Let’s talk about sex…

June 9, 2010

A few weeks back, we posted a brief article on some different ways to advance science education, particularly in terms of early education. Why do we love science? How early does it start? How do we support that interest? We’d like to take this topic further to discuss specifically how women are engaged in science.

This is a touchy topic.

John Tierney recently posted an article in the New York Times, titled “Daring to Discuss Women in Science”, where he asks some interesting questions about the scientific “gender bias”. This editorial comes in response to a new piece of legislation passed by the House aimed at enhancing gender equity: “Fulfilling the potential of women in academic science and engineering”.

For years we’ve heard that the reason there aren’t more women in science is because “girls can’t do math”. Adding fuel to the fire, was the controversial 2005 speech by then Harvard president Lawrence Summers who discussed the greater variability in male IQ scores as a possible reason for the gender distribution in academic science. Since then, many new studies have been carried out to try to discern the effects of the “gender gap” or even if there is one at all. In 2009, President Obama signed an executive order to create the “White House Council on Women and Girls” to ensure that specific agencies took into account the specific needs of women.

In his article, Tierney discusses some of the details of Summers’ hypothesis as well as the results of several studies that purport that the gap is disappearing. But mostly, he opens up the floor for an important, yet uncomfortable discussion.

On a personal note, one of my least favorite, yet thought-provoking questions is “How does it feel to be a woman in science?”. Usually I reply that it feels the same as it does for a man: frustrating, time-consuming, invigorating and mostly like a bird flying repeatedly into a window desperately hoping that one of these times that pane of glass will turn into thin air. Science is a tough business. For all of us. I am still deliberating as to the impact of gender-specific challenges…

So we’re throwing open the debate and plan to delve into the topic more thoroughly in a future full-length article. Your thoughts???

Thanks to Rachel and Erika for the Tip du Jour