"Car rides are where some of the most memorable moments of our lives
happen. Gorgeous views, being confronted by your parents about some
behavior that they do not approve of, and to crown it all, a good time
for them to ask you about "What are you going to do with your life"?.
But one car ride in particular has stuck with me. I was going to a Math
enrichment program with another kid from my neighborhood. He was my
friend, or so I thought. But on the way there, to my surprise, he
started belittling me and told me that I'm not as strong as him in
science and math, simply since I was a girl. Once we got there, to my
horror, he got out and slammed the door on my face shouting LOSER,
before walking away.
You might be wondering, what's the big deal? After all, this pales in
comparison to other unfortunate teenage experiences. Well, this "playful
banter" had an impact on me. It changed my views on STEM. I started
believing that he might be right, that maybe STEM is just not for me. To
STEM or Not to STEM? That is a question which many girls like me
confront as we grow up.
Since then, I have realized that it is not just a question for girls, it
is a question for all late bloomers as well. I hit the jackpot of not
only being a girl but also a late bloomer. It felt like I have two
strikes going against me for a STEM career. But for Middle school, I
went to a chartered school which was focused on STEM, and it changed my
mind. It was here that I got my first experience with serious STEM
subjects like Biology and Chemistry. And to my surprise, I actually
loved both. It was probably also due to the wonderful teachers I had,
but I was fascinated to learn how the world works and how the things I
learned could be applied in the real world. This was the first time I
started realizing that my preconceived notions on STEM could be
wrong.
The formal term for the "playful banter" which dissuades girls from STEM
is called "microaggression” and I realize now that I was also influenced
by this. Also, since I was a late bloomer, I felt excluded by the "smart
kids" which again made me think that STEM is not for me. A Newsweek
article from May 2019, mentions that girls' interest in STEM drops
from about 15% among freshmen girls to about 12% among seniors, and only
gets worse in college.
Studies have shown the subtle and insidious nature of the stereotype
threat. A study by the APA - the American Psychological Association-
found that merely telling women that a math test does not show gender
differences improved their test performance. The researchers gave a math
test to men and women, and told half the women that the test had shown
gender differences and told the other half that they found no gender
differences. The group of women which were told there were no gender
differences performed equally to men. This test clearly proves that
gender stereotypes are another reason why women do not choose STEM.
Why is this important? According to the Smithsonian -The STEM
Imperative, 4 billion people on the planet use a mobile phone, while
3.5 billion use a toothbrush. 90% of all the world's data has been
generated in just the past two years. A human will set foot on Mars in
the next 20 years and driverless cars are here. The future is here and
it is based on STEM.
This Smithsonian Study goes on to estimate
that almost 2.4 million STEM jobs will go unfilled. A Pew Research
study shows that women make up only 25% of the computer science jobs
and less than 15% of engineering jobs. So, even though women are equally
capable, the number of women actually choosing a STEM career lags
behind. This disparity could be explained by the stereotyping and micro
aggression which girls face early on in their academic careers.
How do we prevent women's tech career aspirations from going into
what seems to be a black hole? Are there any examples of women excelling
and contributing towards science ? There are many examples, but there is
one which is recent and concerns fundamental research on black holes
itself. Einstein had conjured up this concept called the black hole,
which has so much gravitational force that even light would not escape.
It is truly the final frontier of science, and we did not know what it
looks like until last year, when NASA released the first ever
pictures of a black hole.The scientific community was ablaze with
excitement, because this is the closest we have as humans come in terms
of having something tangible to conceive what a black hole is. An
MIT-trained young woman, Katie Bouman, was one of the key individuals
who helped come up with the algorithm which was successfully used to
produce the picture that NASA released. The APA study and Katie Bouman
clearly proves that instead of being dissuaded by playful banter or the
stereotype threat, girls who are interested should absolutely pursue
STEM careers.
But how about late bloomers ? Can late bloomers ever
become champions of the Tech world ? There is a champion for late
bloomers in Brian May, who epitomizes what late bloomers can achieve.
Most folks know him as the legendary guitarist from the band Queen who
wrote the iconic “We are the Champions”. Brian May got his PhD in
astrophysics from the Imperial College in London at the ripe old age of
60, and is now an astrophysicist in NASA. May works on the New Horizons
project in NASA now, which is an interplanetary space probe mission. New
Horizons has traveled 4 billion miles from the Earth to the region known
as the Kuiper Belt, which is beyond the farthest planet in the solar
system, Neptune. New Horizons had a flyby of a Kuiper belt object called
"Arrokoth" last January. NASA released the composite image of
"Arrokoth", which looked like a slightly flattened snowman. This was the
first time mankind came close to observing any object that resides at
the farther edges of our solar system. It is mind blowing that the
legendary guitarist Brian May was part of this mission at the age of
71.
Katie Bouman and Brian May are inspirations and should give any girl or
late bloomer the confidence to pursue STEM and also to pursue it at
their own pace. For the question, "To STEM or Not to STEM" the answer is
definitely STEM with persistence."
