Girls put off physics as they do not fit ‘white male’ image

GIRLS are put off studying physics at school because they are bombarded with images of “white males” and they do not feel they will fit in, a leading academic has said.

Dame Athene Donald, master of Churchill College and professor emerita of experimental physics at the University of Cambridge, told the Commons science and technology committee it was “pretty damning” that the national curriculum did not mention female scientists.

Less than a quarter of A-level students taking physics are girls, data show, far behind other sciences.

Dame Athene said she believes the lack of participation in physics from girls is because “most of the images one sees of scientists, physicists, are white males”. She said: “This starts really young, the message society gives is that [physicists] are white males, and I think there is evidence to show that if you are black or if you are a woman, you don’t see yourself fitting in.

“The fact the national curriculum has no women scientists named, for instance, is pretty damning.”

Last month, Katharine Birbalsingh, head teacher of Michaela School in Brent, told MPS that the low uptake of physics among girls was because they disliked “hard maths”.

At her school, 16 per cent of physics students are girls. “From my own knowledge, physics isn’t something that girls tend to fancy,” she said.

There was a backlash to the comments, and Dame Athene offered a firm rebuttal. She said: “It would seem to me that they [Michaela School] haven’t thought about it. There’s a difference between active discouragement and not active encouragement.

“The national average [proportion of female physics students] is 23 per cent, so she’s below the curve as it were, and I would assume that’s just because it hasn’t been an item on their agenda.”