Hey girls, science for you
Up until the age of 15, I dreamt of being a marine biologist. I’d work for Greenpeace, saving whales, dolphins and sharks. I fell asleep to humpback whale music, I walked for the whales, and I believed I’d be immune from shark attacks because they’d sense my support.
By the time I got to sixth form biology – and started rat dissections – and maths split two ways, I discovered my strengths were not in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects.
That’s unfortunate, given how many careers now have a STEM bent. New technology means jobs that no one had heard of five years ago are now in demand. According to NZTech, it’s forecast that Europe alone will need 800,000 new ICT professionals by 2020.
Getting more girls into tech and the STEMs is a major focus. In New Zealand, less than a third of STEM jobs are held by women, despite the fact they make up 64 per cent of students studying for aBachelor of Science degree (mostly in health-related courses).
There’s still a common perception that STEM subjects are too hard for girls or only for bespectacled, unsocialised geeks and nerds, and, for the most part, girls are more socially aware creatures, less likely to be obsessive about a particular area of interest, unless it’s their friends or social lives.
At least, that was me. Even now, when my son speaks with gusto about dinosaurs, or the Observatory volunteers excitedly argue over who will best position the telescope on Saturn, I think ‘‘nerd’’. But scientists are out there pushing boundaries and making a difference to our worlds in a thousand different ways every day. And there’s nothing nerdy about that.
I’ve met many incredible women who break the ‘‘nerd’’ mould. Recently, when media searched out Sian Cleaver, the Principal Mission Systems Engineer for Airbus, at a kindergarten open day, no one immediately identified her as the young woman launching water rockets with the kids. Another guest, the tattooed Scotswoman Ally Watson, looked about as likely to be a computer coder as Lorde.
‘‘Many girls are put off careers like engineering because of this crazy misconception that it’s too hard and not for people like them,’’ Cleaver said during a public talk.
‘‘That makes no sense. Girls are no less capable than their male counterparts and diversity in business makes sense.
‘‘You can’t ignore half the population.’’ Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (and Kiwi expat) Karen Willcox added the big issues humanity faces in the 21st century are far too complex for one group of people.
‘‘How we design cars and aircraft, for example, in the face of climate change requires different perspectives – people of different genders, different ethnic backgrounds.
‘‘It’s the only way people as a society have a chance of solving these problems.’’