I never wanted a doll when I was little. I nagged my mom for Matchbox cars (not doll accessories) and spent many afternoons perfecting my Evel Knievel bike ramp in the backyard with my sisters.
When 1992 rolled around I was in grad school, working on my second degree in Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Silly me. Didn’t I know that math was too hard for girls? In July of that year, Teen Talk Barbie was telling little fashion-conscious girls that ‘Math class is tough.’
So is putting on a tight, sequined top after you’ve applied your lipstick.
Coming through undergrad, I was only one of a handful of girls in class and many times the only black person. I will never forget the day a well-known mechanical engineering instructor looked me in the eye and told me to leave the college of engineering. That’s what tough is.
As a woman engineer teaching intro to engineering, I look around and see one or two young female students in a class full of males. ‘Why don’t girls like math?,’ the college administrators ask us women engineering faculty.
My [tongue-in-cheek] response: Duh! Barbie said it was tough. Barbie always has the best fashion sense and her accessories are out of this world. She’s always right.
I’m glad Barbie wasn’t around when young Grace Hopper was learning to love math. Little Miss Hopper, who passed away in 1992, became Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. Grace was the only woman on the team that programmed the Harvard Mark 1 computer. In 1952, she helped develop COBOL, a computer language still in use today (60 years later!).
Maybe making math books pink would help make math more appealing to girls? (Don’t worry, I’m just kidding.)
For more information on women in science and math, visit About.com. Happy Women’s History Month.
*Source: National Science Foundation, 2006
I can’t tell you how much I loved this post, Linda, and how important your message is to young women. I never wanted a Barbie doll, either, but I have to say that there was only one girl that I knew in high school who applied to an engineering school, and sadly, we all thought she was a bit weird for doing so. And this was at the Bronx H.S. of Science, which specialized in science and math.
We were part of the transition generation. Women’s Lib hit the big cities and the coasts just as we were graduating, but my own Mother told me that women weren’t good at science and math. At the same time, she discouraged me from going to an art high school and steered me into an academic one–probably because its prestigious name would make it easy for me to get into a good college, where I would be sure to meet a college-educated husband.
My high school was 80% boys, and a lot of the teachers felt the girls were robbing boys of seats. They were openly hostile to the girls. I’ll never forget the day I accidentally spilled a test tube of liquid on a lab table; my chemistry teacher glared at me and snarled, “Why don’t you get up on the table and wallow in it?” No one ever approached me or any of the other girls who did well in science or math, for special projects, advanced college classes, etc. While benign indifference was the most prevalent attitude, one teacher did take a special liking to me; he encouraged me to be a model.
Career Guidance consisted of one chat with a Guidance counselor that was so unhelpful that I have always wanted to go back and counsel kids for free. That’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate about job search and career coaching.
Today, there are many resources available to girls, including books and free information on websites catering to their special needs. There are also many women to serve as role models. At the same time, there are people who “don’t believe in” Women’s Lib. In slow growth times, women and minorities lose ground; that’s why it’s particularly important for those of us who understand the obstacles women face to speak out, reach out, and lend a hand up (not a hand out) to the next generation of young women.
Hi, Eugenia. Thanks for commenting. Seems like you took your high school guidance counselor’s advice. You did indeed become a model–a role model. And a resilient, resourceful one at that. Keep reaching out to the women around you, giving them the encouragement you didn’t get.
Good points, I never quite think about it going that far back in age to develop an interest in STEM careers. I never started thinking about it until early high school. By that point, a large portion of my interests had already been established. It should start earlier in children’s development to help them get at least a perspective on STEM careers.
Thanks for commenting, Matt. I appreciate having your perspective in this blog conversation.