It's not that I do not want to write about the surreal experience of the latest Mastodon Weekend and first completed Half Marathon in Greenville, SC with the people I consider my second family.
But, writing at the moment is limited to gigs (such as my recap of the
semifinal match in the PokerStars All-Star Showdown between Galfond and Cates) from the man with the busted toe who finished a mere 12 seconds ahead of me at the 13.1 mile race (see below), and school work which you can sample my "work" on the lack of girls getting into physical and computer science positions.
But instead of an inward look at what that weekend meant to me (in due time because my chaffed nipples still rise from thinking about it) this is what I have been working on:
Females
Chasing the Career Goal Line in Computer and Physical Sciences
Type “
Sam Gordon” into a web
browser and the viewer will see girl dominating the male sport of
football.
She literally throws her
nine-year-old male counterparts aside with speed and agility that they cannot
match.
This is rarity seeing females
play the very physical sport of American Football where hulking males grow
their bodies to obscene sizes and pummel each other with hits that can rival a
car crash.
Women for the most part do
not want to tune their bodies in this manner thus only a handful of women even
reach the college ranks, like Katie Hnida who plays college’s top rank of
Division 1-A for the New Mexico Lobos.
Even
then playing the mostly non-contact position of kicker as the sport of football
is deemed desirable to males only.
What
about activities that do not involve 300 pound people try to tear limbs from
each other in pursuit of a goal line?
Take computer science for example as Tillberg and Cohoon state “the
growing gender divide in computer science is one of the more perplexing
phenomena on college campuses today, especially considering the rising number
of high school girls taking advanced science and math courses”
(Tillberg & Cohoon, 2005).
Like football, younger girls are taking an
interest in the game more and more, so why would girls taking the advanced
placement-type math and science courses not be drawn towards the computer
science majors and careers?
The answer lies within sexist and
biased surroundings as most girls are not drawn towards majors like computer
science because “prior research into choice of major or career generally has
focused on personality factors that lead to a particular career path and
identified ability, self efficacy, expectancy value, interest and congruence,
and barriers and support as key components of whether a student chooses or
rejects a particular major” (Tillberg & Cohoon, 2005). Instead of allowing girls in high school and
college to lean towards what they are good at objectively, they are subjectively
pushed towards a major because of social factors instead. This sort of peer and society pressure would
dissuade would-be female computer science and physical science majors. Thus, adding a layer of barriers for girls
who have a genuine interest and talent for the computer and physical sciences
to follow-through on a path that would grab an advanced degree and eventually
work in these fields.
Awards programs such as ADVANCE
given through the Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and
Education (POWRE) are meant to consider balancing career and family the most
significant challenge facing women scientists and engineers today. Based on
these results, institutions must seek to remove or at least lower these and
other barriers to attract and retain women scientists and engineers” (Rosser, 2004). The POWRE group notes in a questionnaire that
“60.3% of the respondents name balancing work with family responsibilities as
the significant challenge to women scientist” (Rosser, 2004).
In this case, women scientists tend to put raising a family more
important than furthering their careers, following an entrenched sexual
stereotype that women should be the nurturing sex versus the hunter and
gatherer.
Studies, such as the POWRE group’s,
show why there are a lack of female computer and physical science majors.
Teenage and younger girls are drawn and/or pushed towards believing that
raising a family is more important than expanding their minds and developing
academically towards a career that suits their talent. Take the internet sensation Sam Gordon, if
she were male showing this kind of dominance on the football field, there would
be coaching trying to recruit her to train with them and hone her skills in
hopes of parlaying that into a college scholarship or even a National Football
League (professional American Football) contract worth millions of
dollars. Instead, Sam will likely play
for a few more years until her competition’s physiques reach the point where
her parents feel it is no longer safe for her to play thus wasting a potential
talent. How many girls testing high in
science aptitude are turned away in a similar manner? Lacking the parental or peer guidance to
bring what could be a blossoming career in computer or physical science, many
girls also let this talent shown at a younger age go to waste.
References
Rosser, S. V. (2004). Using POWRE to ADVANCE:
Institutional Barriers Identified by Women Scientists and Engineers. NWSA
Journal , 50-78.
Tillberg, H. K., & Cohoon, J. M. (2005).
Attracting Women to the CS Major. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies
, 126-140.
