"\"Sarah L. Pallas\"."<spallas at bcm.tmc.edu>
wrote:
>This has been a problem for us too, children's literature and even
>clothing are very gender-biased. My 3 yr old son has already decided
>it's better to be a boy, that women can't play football (well, they
>DON'T, so maybe he's right?) or be farmers, or even doctors (despite the
>fact that his pediatrician is a woman). We counter this strenuously- he
>doesn't watch network TV, we try to address cartoon characters by both
>gender-specirfic pronouns, when we see an animal outside, we call it
>'she' unless we can tell otherwise, we refer to firefighters and police
>officers, not firemen and policemen, we constantly point out women in
>male-dominated careers, but it seems it's all to no avail. He plays in a
>very boy-like way, and has no interest in the several interesting dolls
>we've bought him. The culture has defeated us!! It's very frustrating!!
>>Sarah Pallas
>I sympathize heartily! I haved shared this one before, but it was a while ago. I was part of
a "women in science" presentation to a group of 7th graders. These were children whose
parents had brought them to a special career night, as the school wouldn't do it during the
day (another long story). Anyway, my own daughter was in attendance and the first exercise,
as the children came in and visited the displays before the program began, was to draw a
picture of a scientist. Imagine my chagrin when my daughter drew a man with glasses in a lab
coat with an exploding beaker in his hand. I pointed out that Mom and many of her friends
were scientists and none of them looked like that (even the men!). Her comment- "but you're
not REAL scientists."
It turns out that REAL scientists are what TV and movies dishes out. And the last movie with
a female scientist I saw (granted I don't see many movies) was Outbreak, in which the female
scientist sees the data differently than her ex-husband (turns out he's right), gets infected
because she made a mistake under pressure, has to be rescued (literally) by the ex-husband,
and of course, takes the rogue back in again even though he hasn't changed a bit. This is not
really role-model stuff!
What can we do (I like the suggestions mentioned already, and I agree it has to start from day
one) to help girls become women who don't see things as "off limits"? There are enough
barriers to success in science (as other threads show) without adding the "that's not
feminine" barrier. And unfortunately, by grade 7, science seen as "boy's domain", if not by
parents or even their children, often by the teachers or the school system. So there's plenty
of work to do in this area, but it seems to me it requires being more broadly focused and
taking time away from the lab bench (ie, choosing to put the careers of our children ahead of
our own?)
Food for thought and comment,
Julia Frugoli
Dartmouth College
visiting grad student at
Texas A&M University
Department of Biological Sciences
College Station, TX 77843
409-845-0663
FAX 409-847-8805
"Evil is best defined as militant ignorance."
Dr. M. Scott Peck
