So this past week, I stumbled across a really powerful advertisement. It was for Verizon Wireless, and was entitled "Inspire Her Mind". According to the advertisement, 66% of female 4th graders say that they like science and math, while only 18% of college engineering majors are female. While I'm not an engineer, I am a female in science, and these numbers speak to me as well. The advertisement shows a young girl growing up to be of high school age, all while being told that she shouldn't do things are are not particularly considered "female". She is told not to play with dirt, not to continue a science project, not to handle tools, all things that are encouraged in males. She is told these negative things by who we can assume to be her parents (we don't actually see a parental figure in the advertisement, just hear their voices), so by the time she reaches high school, she is much more concerned with her looks than with the science she used to love. Below is the advertisement:
I sincerely relate to Samantha. I've always lived very close to the ocean, and my love for science started there. Playing in the waves, observing the tide pools, and even collecting a few specimens of my own were some of my fondest memories as a little girl. However, those moments are not captured in photographs. The photographs I have from being a child are all from when I looked particularly cute or had a favorite dress on. While I do look adorable in those pictures (just sayin'), I don't remember any of those experiences. But if you look back and try to tell me the story of my life based on pictures, I should be this princess who loves glitter and thankfully plays sports (there are plenty of pictures of me from when I first started to play softball and ski).
^glitter face paint - those of you who know me now know that I would never let glitter get this close to me
Of the many times I'm sure this has happened to me, there is one that I remember quite distinctly. I remember being probably around 8 or 9, when I found a dead fish in the lake I always hung out at in New Hampshire, and my first thought was to dissect it - I had never seen the insides of a fish before, and I had seen plenty of diagrams in books so I figured I should be able to do it no problem. The first issue after I announced my intentions to my parents and their friends was that they weren't going to let me use a real knife - I had to use a plastic one. And that I understand, I was young, but I could have just had some supervision. After using my 8-year-old muscles to try to saw through this fish, I spilled some of the guts on the sand, and was then reprimanded for getting some fish blood on the beach. Soon after that, before I even had the chance to look inside, I was made to throw it back into the lake. I never wanted to dissect anything again until college. I would be willing to bet that if I were a boy, I would have been allowed to cut the fish open.
In the society we have grown up in, it has been the man's job to love sports, fix cars, play with computers, grill, build things, and partake in science (all of which I do, except for the fixing cars - but I do know how an internal combustion engine works and that has to count for something, right?). This was mentioned in my sociology class, and it is a challenge I ask you to extend to every little girl you meet: When you first meet a little girl, refrain from letting the first words out of your mouth be "Well, isn't she pretty!". We would never say this to a little boy, it would be something more along the lines of what he likes to do, or what sports he's playing. Telling little girls they are pretty just extenuates the social idea that "pretty" is all girls need to strive to be. Try telling that little girl that she is smart instead. Even now, when my parents show their friends a picture of me, the person will comment on how grown-up I look, or how pretty I became, but not about what my college major is or what I plan to do as a career - my parents have to offer that information in addition to "Isn't she pretty?".
^thankfully, I was signed up to play sports - and I learned quickly how to be the only female in a group (only girl on my team - also the only one smart enough to wear sunglasses in direct sunlight)
Basically, to be a woman in science, I feel like I have beaten the odds, which is not what it should feel like. I shouldn't feel out of place when I am the only woman working in a genetics lab, or the one who has to help my male friends with chemistry. I've grown tired of getting strange looks when I tell them what I want to do with my life, and the only comment they say is that "That's impressive for being a woman". The biggest thing is, this doesn't just apply to the sciences, this applies to almost all the major types of work. I had a friend who just graduated (graduated and employed) who was afraid to wear her favorite pink pants at work since she was working in a male-dominated field. No woman should be afraid to express her femininity at work for fear of being scrutinized. I hope she wears her pink pants often. And in conclusion, please consider taking up that challenge I offered earlier that was offered to me in my sociology class: don't tell little girls that they are pretty.
Thanks for reading, as always,
Kim
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