Research says: Feminine STEM role models do not motivate girls

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

Being a HVAC - Plumbing Contractor working in homes doing repairs, I have observed the parenting of many young children over the years. If this country wants to bring more females into the stem work force, the problem needs to be addressed at the early child development years. To me it seams that most moms even if they them selves are in a stem career do not nurture stem in their daughters and actual block a fathers efforts. The blocking of play that helps with stem development really increases when they enter the play group stage. Add to that societies perception of what a girl should be delivered thru media and it's not surprising that the large majority of girls do not want anything to do with a stem career. Watch the Disney Channel and other cartoons to see what society tells our children to be. I find it scary the messages in many of these programs. To try and address the problem at the high school years is to late. Girls have already accepted the message of society as to what they should do and the behaviors that are expected by society from them. Find the kids male and female at a young age that have stem leanings and start nurturing them then. Toy selection by parents is critical. Play is critical. The children's media Must change their message. Society must change its message. How do you do that? I would consider any woman in a stem career now to be a true non-conformist. They totally ignored society's message. Just my opinion.

This...actually could have been the answer to one of the essay questions on my women's psych final last semester.

At very young ages, children start to seek out people that are similar to them and may attempt to mimic that behavior. Children as young as 2 years old develop some form of gender identity. There was one study that showed that, by 24 months, children already produce more gender-typed words (i.e. "truck" for boys vs "doll" for girls). They learn through play and through socialization. Even if parents take caution in not reinforcing stereotypes in their own homes, other children outside the home have been "taught" the norms for their gender. As they grow older, the pressure for gender conformity increases--you'll often notice girls who were once "tomboys" shift to being more "feminine" around middle school age as that pressure increases.

As has already been discussed in this thread, STEM is almost always cast as being more "masculine" so I won't go into how that, along with gender development, create the sort of problem we see today.

It really is a societal problem. Richard Feynman's story may be a case of this. Though he was telling his daughter one thing, everything else in the world was going against that.

Even if we "fix" this sort of problem, there are theories that some "feminine" (or as some psychologists prefer to call them "expressive") and "masculine" (or "instrumental") traits are inherent and that, regardless of the socialization or non-enforcement of stereotypes or what is in each child's gender schema, girls will almost always go towards dolls and boys will always go towards trucks. I don't think I am one to support such a theory--just saying that there are some like it.

Going back to the original post, perhaps having overly attractive and "feminine" STEM role models brings up the other insecurities that many girls already have about themselves. We've all heard about the impact the messages in the media do to girls, especially when it comes to their appearances and their bodies. Maybe presenting them with these overly feminine, good-looking women just plays right into that as well. They might see them and think "Look how much better this woman is than I am" rather than "Wow! I can be a girl AND a scientist!"

And, Siri, yes the links only work if you go to PSU. Thankfully, I was able to find them via UMD's catalogs as well.