More gender balance in STEAM? Not without more empowerment for girls!
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” — Mare Curie
Surprisingly, economically developed countries experience the gender equality paradox. It’s an interesting phenomenon observed in egalitarian states, where equal rights and opportunities do not get translated into having more girls studying STEAM.
In these more egalitarian countries, the stereotype of associating math with men is stronger.
As a result, more boys than girls continue to choose to study STEAM-related areas, the math anxiety levels are overall lower, but higher for girls than for boys, boys’ parents invest more in their STEAM education, thus both standards and expectations are high.
What does this — parents of girls — leave us with?
For one, if we want to give our girls a real chance to grow and keep their interest in science, then, we must be more intentional about it.
It’s not about engineering our girls’ lives; I would say it’s about being more attentive to ourselves not bringing negative gender stereotypes at home and dismantling any limiting beliefs our girls might have formed already. In other words, empower them.
The gender stereotype threat*
Hannah Fry, an amazing British mathematician and science communicator, wrote a column in iNews.co.uk answering the question ’Why so few women excel at maths? She responded straight on: ‘Sexism, of course!’
She continues — ‘It’s not one thing that makes women leave. It’s death by a thousand cuts. If you’re on the receiving end of these tiny cuts, over and over, they reinforce the idea that you do not belong. It takes a great deal of resilience to counter that narrative.’
So yes, the stereotype threat is real and makes many victims.
Defined as a ‘state of psychological discomfort experienced in situations in which one’s behaviour can potentially confirm a stereotype about the group to which one belongs’, the stereotype threat makes girls anxious about their performance and achievements and they arm up.
They want to do well, but the stress they are under takes a toll on their focus. Researchers found that during math exams, girls who think they might do worse than boys because girls are not good at math have their working memory partly blocked, thus the limited capacity to focus on the actual exam. Girls, in the end, obtain poorer results and confirm the gender stereotype.
Parents' and teachers’ support is paramount
Now, the good news is that parents and teachers can play an important role in reducing math anxiety and diminishing the potential impact of gender stereotype threats.
Math is important. We do not want poor maths skills to stand in the way, so confidence in their ability to solve basic maths and in their capacity to grow those skills — if needed! — are paramount. Most often, girls are praised for being gifted, and boys for persevering. This teaches boys the valuable lesson of being determined.
As an expert on communicating gender equality, passionate about STEAM education, and having raised an amazingly determined girl, aerospace engineer and glider pilot, I have a few tips to share.
Here is my ten-step checklist for parents who want to grow and keep their girls’ interest in STEAM and do not know where to start:
1) Start educating your girls’ interests early.
Already at the age of six, girls show they internalize gender stereotypes and believe that they are less “really, really smart” than boys are. This can explain some of the pressure girls feel as not being good enough to study STEAM or pursue a career in the field. With a bit of a conscious effort, we can correct self-doubt and level out the playing field. The most important is that we free our own minds of gender stereotypes, release any assumptions we might have about girls in STEAM and meet them where they are.
I wrote this blog post — Five things you need to know about raising STEAM-oriented girls — which can give a few ideas.
2) Instill curiosity, exploration, hypothesize alongside them
The most important skill to have is curiosity. Asking ‘how?’ and ‘why?’ is the way to approach STEAM fields, yet research says that curiosity to know more only appears in connection to topics we know a little about. As strange as it sounds, we will never inquire about phenomena, places, or ideas we know nothing of. That’s why it is important to expose our children to a variety of topics, engage them in diverse activities, stimulate their interest and curiosity and model this thirst for knowledge to them.
3) Pay attention to what they study in class, and complement it with fun activities and playdates
One easy way of doing it is to connect science workshops, visits to museums, experiments or crafting playdates with what happens in class. In this way, she builds knowledge on an already existing basis and is motivated to learn. Encourage her to proactively share these discoveries in class and consider organising a themed playdate in which you run experiments, and have a fun crafting session on topics studied in school.
4) Cultivate a growth mindset with sports, languages or music classes
Committing to sports, learning a new language or how to play an instrument implies taking on new challenges and cultivating a growth mindset. That teaches her self-confidence and resilience. I would grit to the list of benefits too. That is a personal, sustained-over-time, deep desire to persevere that we cannot build for our girls. It needs to come from within. Why does it matter? One thing no one talks about when it comes to ‘girls in STEAM’ and having more ‘women in science’ is the hard work behind it, not to mention the countless instances in which, being a minority, they feel they do not belong.
I wrote here about how these keep the courage muscle flexed with STEAM — On the importance of courage in pursuing STEAM.
5) Have fun with math — tell them they are smart — brilliant
If you, as parents struggled with math, having your girls studying math in schools is a perfect time to overcome your fears. Girls are especially looking at the women in their lives as role models.
Research also shows that moms and even their scientist/stereotype-breaking girlfriends have a large influence on their daughters’ confidence in their math skills. So, show her that math helps out solving everyday problems, give her a budget to spend, revisit concepts together (here Khan Academy can be of great help), go through Everyday Mathematics worksheets with a cup of hot chocolate, and show her you value math and make it part of your home vocabulary.
After all, math is just another language. Praise her interest, growing skills and math swagger. Celebrate small achievements. Just as little as 20 minutes of daily math can make a difference. What are 20 minutes? A play of coordinate games, a Khan Academy video and a practice quiz or an Everyday mathematics worksheet.
6) STEAM is more than just coding — lego — robotics
Coding, Lego and robotics definitely make the STEAM projects more fun! Girls can rock these areas too, but if they are more passionate about drawing, cooking and hiking, don’t give up. STEAM is so much more than lines of code and programming robots, classes which most of the STEM centres offer. Start from their genuine interests and build their skills from that point onwards.
If we allow them to grow their authentic selves, skills and passions, that might lead them to a career in STEM. We just need to provide them with the tools that allow them to be designers and makers!
7) Use scientific vocabulary and explain concepts
If you are visiting a science museum or making an experiment at home, draw your girls’ attention to the new learnings. It can very well be the exothermic property of slime, the momentum she needs to spin faster at the playground, if /then the algorithm she uses when sorting out toys. These are regular activities and it’s important to define and describe them in scientific, yet simple terms, so she is exposed to the wonderful discoveries of science and their impact on our everyday lives. For sure she will be surprised and curious to know more.
8) Work on gender stereotypes — girls and boys have equal rights to be scientists, pilots or engineers
Gender stereotypes affect boys too. In this blog post — Raising our girls to be independent readers adds to their STEAM skills — I talk about girls who are good at reading/boys who are not good at reading gender stereotypes.
While this stereotype indeed favours girls’ perception of their greater ability to read, it works as fulfilled prophecy for boys. Left unattended, this stereotype plummets boys’ motivation and desire to read as they start thinking reading is a girls’ thing, whereas math and science are boys’ thing. As in the example above, gender stereotypes affecting boys admonish them for what they are not supposed to do, whereas gender stereotypes affecting girls focus on what they are supposed to do.
9) Make your girl understand you expect her to succeed
It might sound tough and demanding, yet not at all if completed with this additional message: “We expect you to succeed in all your endeavours and we support you all the way to it.” Constantly encourage her to take on new challenges, overcome fears and aim high. When she reaches her goals, celebrate with her any small and big achievements, and grow trust in her power to achieve and overcome defeats.
I wrote a blog post about it — Celebrating our girls’ achievements.
10) We have a limited window of opportunity to get girls interested in science
The 2017 Microsoft study ‘Why Europe’s girls’ aren’t studying STEM?’ asked more than 11,000 girls, from across Europe what holds them back and what they think would gear up their interest in STEM. They all said they value parents’ encouragement and having parents supporting them makes a difference. The study also said that most girls become interested in STEM at the age of 11-and-a-half but this starts to wane by the age of 15. It leaves us, parents, with a narrow window of opportunity to get our girls interested in science, which can be even narrower if you think girls in their teen years start to care more about what their peers think than their parents or teachers.
Any other points you would like to add? Mark the text you would like to comment on and leave your suggestions.
As always, happy to hear your thoughts.
Stay in touch, Alex
#STEAMwithME resources
- Stoet, Gijsbert & Geary, David. (2018). The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education. Psychological Science
- Hannah Fry: Why do so few women excel at maths? Sexism, of course
- Everyday Mathematics for Parents: What You Need to Know to Help Your Child Succeed — by The University of Chicago. I obsessed with this book last year.
- For math practice — Khan Academy and Everyday Mathematics
- Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests — by Lin Bian et al
- Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination — edited by Todd D. Nelson
- 2017 Microsoft study ‘Why Europe’s girls’ aren’t studying STEM?’
