Things are changing, perhaps for the better – who knows? But it takes a long time!

This is a long comment!

In 1965, the High School I attended in Scotland had a huge number of sixth-year (seventh form or Y13) students doing Science subjects, bio through chem to phys. It was a mixed comprehensive school. Out of that huge number of senior science scholars there was one solitary girl, and her standard of achievement was mediocre to say the least.

When I went through uni, there were 3 women and 36 men in my honours year in Chemistry. I graduated honours in 1969, just a few weeks after men first walked the Moon – notably a sigificant time in Science. During the next 3 years I did research alongside 11 male and 1 female postgrads.

But in the short space of 8 or 9 years things had shifted in Scotland where more women were moving into Science fields in secondary schools.

When I taught at James Gillespies High School for Girls in 1973, we could provide ALL the women students for Med School in Edinburgh. The competition was fierce.

What I report above is simply statistical.

Anecdotally, and at the other side of the world, things were slower to move that way. I’ve lived in New Zealand and taught there since 1974.

In 1983 a brilliant young seventh former came to me for advice. She wanted to learn about two career fields she was interested in so she could make up her mind which to choose. She was good at Physics and was interested in becoming an engineer. Her family was also encouraging her to go into medicine. I knew what ‘engineering’ was like at uni and in the field, for it was almost exclusively dominated by men, at least in NZ.

I asked her a simple question about her preferences. Did she mind if she worked in a field dominated exclusively by men? Or was this something that didn’t bother her?

Her answer was implicit.

I got offside with the Dean that year for speaking with this student. The fact was I didn’t give any advice. I just stated the facts as I read them. Later that year the young student was accepted to Med School.

There are many stories I could tell that are similar. Young women ARE swayed by what they see as male dominated areas of study. But now, in Science, the tables have been turned, at least in NZ.

So evident was it that the ’system’ favoured boys in many areas of the curriculum that the new curriculum introduced in the 80s was revamped to provide encouragement for young women to advance in secondary education. Affirmative action it was called at the time.

Now there is a wailing and gnashing of teeth from the business world and from schools and parents, that girls are doing better than boys in senior secondary qualifications including in Science and Mathematics.

You just can’t win.

Ka kite