• In the United States women comprise approximately 50% of the work force, yet only 9% are employed as scientists and engineers.• Only 12 percent of students enrolled in high school technology programs are female.
• In the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress science study, girls continue to score below the national mean on all science achievement items, and express negative attitudes toward science.
• Many more females are less interested than males in fields with a significant mathematical component such as physics, chemistry and engineering.
• Research studies suggest that teaching styles and other school-related factors are important in encouraging girls (as well as boys) to continue courses and careers in science.
The issue of gender is a real one in the mathematics and science classroom, and in this section, we will investigate the research that has been done to discover ways to improve the participation of girls in middle school and high school science, and to increase the career participation of women in science. A number of researchers and teachers not only in the United States, but in many countries around the world have
• conducted research to document and explore the problem of gender differences in the classroom• compiled teacher training courses and inservice programs to improve teacher's ability to create environments conducive to "female-friendly" science.
• developed curricular and instructional materials designed to increase equity and encourage girls and minorities in science courses and careers
Participation of Women in Science
"I wonder whether the tiny atoms and nuclei or the mathematical symbols or the DNA molecules have any preference for either masculine or femine treatment." As Anne Haley-Oliphant points out, it is doubtful that inanimate objects have a preference for being studied by males or females, but the statistics on the participation of women in science is much less than the percentage of women in the population.
The history of scientific ideas reads like the history of men scientists. Yet, women have participated in science since antiquity, but their status and role was always in the shadows of men, and much of their work was unrecognized by the scientific community, stolen, or lost because it was never published.
In her book, Hypatia's Heritage, Margaret Alic, provides an historical glimpse of the accomplishments of women in science from antinquity through the nineteeth century. She describes the research, theories, observations made by a long list of female contributors to the field of science. Alic sounds an important challenge to science teachers when she documents the contributions of women in the science, yet in school science, discoveries, theories and writings of women are left out of the pages of most school textbooks. She says:
"Science is that body of knowledge that describes, defines and, where possible, explains the universe---the matter that constitutes it, the organisms that inhabit it, the physical laws that govern it. This knowledge accumualtes by a slow, arduous process of speculation, experimentation and discovery that has been an integral part of human activity since the dawn of the race. Women have always played an essential role in this process.Yet we think of the history of science as a history of men. More than that, we think of the history of science as the story of very few men---Aristole, Copernicus, Newton, Einstein--men who drastically altered our view of the universe. But the history of science is much more than that. It is the story of the thousands of people who contributed to the knowledge and theories that constituted the science of their eras and made the 'great leaps' possible. Many of these people were women. Yet their story remains virtually unknown."
The impact of keeping this aspect of the history of science from science courses is to convey a sexist character of science. Although blatant racism and sexism have been eliminated from textbooks, there is evidence to suggest that women and people of color are absent from the written content of the text books. Stories, anectodes and accomplishments about women and minorities are missing, in general, from textbooks. Providing vignettes and involving students in an exploration of the contributions of a wide range of scientists---not just Western white males---can have a positive impact on student's perceptions of science.
The current status of women in medicine and engineering in Western, Eastern and some developing nations reveals a pattern that provides the basis for an analysis of the status of women in science and engineering (Figure 1). The comparison between Western countries such as the USA and Britian reveal differences in particpation compared to some Eastern and Developing countries.
Physicians Engineers Western
Countries Britain Canada France USA West
Germany 17 33 15 10 30.6 0.5 8.2 2.0 1.0 7.8 Eastern
Countries Hungary Poland Soviet
Union 42 44 75 no data 11 44 Developing
Countries Burma Mexico 50 34.7 15 6.7
Because of this dispartiy in the participation of women in science, a number of Western nations have developed intervention programs to increase participation. The programs are quite varied. For example in Britain, several programs have been developed. One program, Girls into Science and Technology (GIST ) focused on
1. raising teachers' awareness of girls' under-achievement and help them them realize that they can do something about it.2. testing children's entering attitudes and knowledge in scinece and technology for comparison with later performance and choice; and
3. arranging a series of visits to schools by women working in scientific and technological jobs who coudl act as role models for girls.
GIST followed a cohort of approximately 2,000 students from the time they entered secondary school until they made their option choices at the end of the third year. The purpose of GIST was to alter girls' attitudes toward physical science and technical subjects by the end of year three so that in years four and five they would choose these options. Although the results were not clear cut, the project had an impact on students' and teachers' attitudes toward science, and helped create a climate of discussion, debate and investigation of issues surrounding gender in the science classroom in Britain.
The programs that were designed to improve the status of women and minorities in science careers, as well as participation in science courses of study in secondary schools, investigated the reasons for this phenomenon. For instance Joan Skolnick, Carol Langbort, and Lucille Day indicate that gender socialization negatively affects girls attitudes toward mathematics and science. They point out that female socialization promotes fears about competence, reliance on the judgement of others, an interpersonal and verbal orientation, and an unfamiliarity with toys, games and activities, and activities that stimulate learning of spatial relationships and basic mathematics concepts. They think that the strategies used to teach mathematics and science don't favor confidence building, rely on abstract knowledge, and are generally devoid of activities and group work. They suggest a problem solving strategy in which students' confidence and competence in problem solving is built through active, hands-on experiences.
Alison Kelly, in investigating why girls don't study physical science, suggests also that girls lack of confidence may be a reason, but also suggests that the masculine image of science and the impersonal approach of science contribute to the problem. In studies of student's attitudes about science Kelly found that a large number of boys but very few girls agree with statements like "a woman could never be a great scientist" or "girls don't need to learn about electricity or light." She points out that if boys believe that science is a man's world, then this attitude will impact the science classroom, e.g. boys will dominate the lab, discussions, etc.
Teacher classroom behavior may also contribute to the reason that girls don't continue with science in secondary school. One particular example of this is reported by Kahle in a study of gender issues in the science classroom. In two in-depth investigations of science classroms, Kahle found that the grades teacher's gave influenced student science options. This is not surpising, since grades contribute to one's self-confidence. However, in the cases that Kahle studied, one of the teachers gave twice as many high grades to boys as girls; the other teacher gave equal numbers of girls and boys the highest grades. In the cases of the teacher who gave more boys the highest grade, the percentage of females taking courses in physics, chemistry and physical science ranged from 14 to 33 %, wheras 45% and 50% of the other teacher's female students took physics and chemistry, respectively.
The way in which teachers interact with students in the classroom can have an impact on students attitudes toward science and future career choices. Kahle suspects that the role or metaphor the teacher uses to describe his/her teaching style may be a factor. For example the teacher who sees him/herself as a facilitator of learning provides a classroom climate more conducive to non-sexist teaching. Taking on a facilitative role as teacher may be due prior educational experiences. Kahle says this about the teacher who was perceived as a facilitator of learning:
"Sandra, on the other hand, clearly saw her role as change agent. She felt that she had experienced discrimination and she consistently endeavoured to be a transformer, not reproducer, of sex-role stereotypes which promulgated gender differences."
It is interesting to note that the other teacher's metaphor for describing the role of the teacher was dispensor of knowledge and information. In this role, perhaps science is perceived as impersonal, and perhaps the teacher sees the role as one of passing on information, rather than helping students find out and use their own resources to learn.
What can science teachers do to reduce bias in teaching? What strategies can be employed in the classroom that will reduce sex-sterotyping, and encourage girls in science courses and careers.