Maybe it starts with little girls getting dollhouses and little boys getting telescopes and ant farms. Fast forward a few decades, and female federal government employees in the physical sciences earn only 80 percent of the salaries of men in the same sector. In between, you have high school and college—the places where career directions are formed—and young women are less inclined than their male counterparts to set their sights on a STEM field.
Somewhere along the way, they may be led to believe they are not cut out for a career in advanced science. It could be early stereotypes, it could be lack of role models, it could be a dearth of opportunity, but it is there: Despite being 51 percent of the general U.S. population, women make up only 37 percent of science PhDs and 18 percent of full professors in science.
“Clearly there’s an underrepresentation, and it’s something that does not occur abruptly, but gradually over time,” says Jeff Osowski, vice president for learning and teaching at Liberty Science Center. One of the center’s many education programs aims at confronting the disparity. Partners in Science connects 35 high school students with research scientists for a summer-long mentorship, and at least half are young women or minorities.
The program enabled Aisha Huggins, a 19-year-old Rutgers biomedical engineering student from Plainfield, to study in a skin cancer lab. The experience made a difference for her. “I was always interested in science,” she says, “but it definitely opened up my eyes.”That is the point. “We regularly hear from people who say we gave them an experience, and it becomes a launching pad into a STEM career,” says Osowski.
Bob Goodman of Bergen Technical High School says the shortage of women is particularly stark in physics and computer science. “Even girls who are strong in science are generally steered away from physics before they get to it,” he says. Statewide, about one-third of those who take the physics AP test are girls; at Bergen Tech, where physics is taught in ninth grade, it is half.
Missy Holzer, a science teacher at Chatham High School, says better science teachers in elementary school—particularly in fourth grade, when students are easily engaged—will get the ball rolling for girls. “They will make the subject come alive for all students.”
Sandra Alberti of the state Department of Education says she is constantly working on ways to attract girls to science at a young age. Proposals include developing better elementary school science teachers, fostering a partnership between Douglass [women’s] College at Rutgers University and the public-school classroom, and launching a website to highlight such programs. “When you do things to promote female participation, total participation goes up,” she says. “So we’re not shy about confronting that.”