Remember the woman who instilled your love for science? Be that woman for your girl!
“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” E.E. Cummings (American poet)
I grew up with quiet Mondays. Both grandma and I were sitting in the living room where my mom was pinning paper patterns on fabric spread across the eight-seat table. Moments like these, before cutting the fabric, were tense. She checked the client’s measurements one last time in her notebook, did once more calculations and, with the pattern in place, she started to cut the fabric into pieces.
I could see then numeracy mastery at work. With just the sketch of an outfit or a ripped out page from a Neckermann, she was able to transform a few square meters of gabardine into two-piece suits or sew pieces of silk and lace into elegant dresses overnight.
My mom, with two years of apprenticeship, was an outstanding self-taught dressmaker. Proper education and more opportunities in life could have prompted her to famous fashion houses, allowing her to design and make her own gown collections. Instead, there she was, cutting piles of fabric on Mondays for women clients who wanted to add a personal touch to their pretty standard lives communism was all about.
In return, I got to witness my mom’s amazing work and followed her love for numbers. She was asking me to do extra math on a daily basis and that overtime grew confidence in my math skills. I was thriving in math classes throughout secondary school and chose math and physics as my speciality during high school.
The importance of role models cannot be underestimated
My father had his role too. He was always asking me to join him and repair broken faucets, to help him change burnt fuses, hand him in his tools and assist with the almost daily mending. It is funny how I lived my childhood in a full-steamed DIY era. I grew up in communist Romania. Families were obliged to cook, mend their houses, knit, sew, recycle, repurpose, and grow their own vegetables, live self-sustained lives with limited resources; a lifestyle I feel is quite idealised nowadays.
I guess communism had its good parts, pushing for equal treatment of girls and boys, even if that meant equally bad conditions for both. That partially explains why in some former communist countries, more women take STEAM careers and overall there is a higher interest in opening up girls’ appetite for science.
My high-school story is a sad one though. Our math teacher, probably a genius man, showed terrible pedagogical skills. He preferred to work with the smartest two boys in the class and called the girls “beautiful, but stupid”. My memory of him is that of a misogynist at work who downshifted confidence in my math skills forever.
I do not know how, but my love for numbers, logic and structure resisted his wrongdoing, even if my focus shifted towards philosophy, the world of ideas, political sciences, and eventually to gender equality. It was during my university years that I discovered that the world was not exactly built entirely by men, that women had significant contributions in every area of life.
Why didn’t I read about these women in our school manuals or get introduced to their achievements by our science, art or language teachers? Why do we still praise men for their accomplishments when for centuries societies denied women’s equal rights? What was their fault other than… being too womanly? Lacking access to education, married young and confined to care duties, only exceptional women managed to hold their head high and pursue their calling for science and excellence.
It’s the strong STEAM deterrents we need to counteract
Although access to STEM fields has opened up to more women and girls, we still require excellence from them, mind the gender bias from the science books and fully embark on a STEAM career knowing that they might not be equally treated to their men colleagues.
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 do they think would gear up their interest in STEM. They all said they value parents’ encouragement and having parents supporting them makes a difference.
In fact, many women with a STEAM career credit a parent for it. The majority of these parents did not have a background in these fields, but they all modelled interest in STEAM skills and valued education.
That was my mom for me. You might have a similar experience to mine, a spirited woman who instilled a love for science in your life and told you could do anything you put your mind to. Go back to that you-can-do-anything-feeling, rebuild it for your daughter, and model the curiosity for science and discovery in her life. She may end up being the one making a difference for others.
