Good question. And yes, I do see pressure on girls not to enter the science field.
It comes from other girls.
Anyone who has been in high school for more than a day knows there are no humans on the planet more conformist, judgmental, and in-your-face than teenage girls. There is a reason the movies stereotype them the way they do.
And teenage girls are the first to chastise any of the girls who put being scientific before getting their nails done.
Boys don't care -- especially nerdy boys. They love to have girls around at their geek parties. I remember the one science/math team girl we had in high school was provoking fights between the nerds because she was so sought after. It's the teenage girls that rejected her.
It's not professors because they need more students to justify their jobs. And it's not the employers, who need to meet quotas. And if the non-boss science guys are a-holes to women at work, well, they're generally not very nice to other men either. Ever have to deal with tech services at your job? Not exactly the welcome wagon.
Women should look in the mirror if they want more women in engineering. But since women tend not to self-criticize, and blame others instead, they'll blame the patriarchy for making teenage girls the way they are.
***
Nice observation about boys being more curious. The other side of that coin is all the times we got punished in the classroom for our curiosity. Boys are curious; the conformist women in the school system do their best to stomp that out. This, I think, is the real story here.
I've told about how I was the best reader in my first grade class but got punished because I did extra work and read ahead of schedule. I was curious as to what the other stories in our "reader" were like, so I read the whole thing. My "breaking the rules" was more important to them than me reading on a fourth grade level or better in first grade. My desk was moved into the hallway for a week, where I sat, alone, like a dog. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a story like this.
It comes from other girls.
Anyone who has been in high school for more than a day knows there are no humans on the planet more conformist, judgmental, and in-your-face than teenage girls. There is a reason the movies stereotype them the way they do.
And teenage girls are the first to chastise any of the girls who put being scientific before getting their nails done.
Boys don't care -- especially nerdy boys. They love to have girls around at their geek parties. I remember the one science/math team girl we had in high school was provoking fights between the nerds because she was so sought after. It's the teenage girls that rejected her.
It's not professors because they need more students to justify their jobs. And it's not the employers, who need to meet quotas. And if the non-boss science guys are a-holes to women at work, well, they're generally not very nice to other men either. Ever have to deal with tech services at your job? Not exactly the welcome wagon.
Women should look in the mirror if they want more women in engineering. But since women tend not to self-criticize, and blame others instead, they'll blame the patriarchy for making teenage girls the way they are.
***
Nice observation about boys being more curious. The other side of that coin is all the times we got punished in the classroom for our curiosity. Boys are curious; the conformist women in the school system do their best to stomp that out. This, I think, is the real story here.
I've told about how I was the best reader in my first grade class but got punished because I did extra work and read ahead of schedule. I was curious as to what the other stories in our "reader" were like, so I read the whole thing. My "breaking the rules" was more important to them than me reading on a fourth grade level or better in first grade. My desk was moved into the hallway for a week, where I sat, alone, like a dog. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a story like this.