The Young Royals society – a youth group that communicates and promotes an interest in science among students and scholars hosted a tea party for Women in Science.
The Young Royals society – a youth group that communicates and promotes an interest in science among students and scholars hosted a tea party for Women in Science.
"It’s all about attitude," says Prof Rosemary Dorrington, the new Deputy Dean of Science at Rhodes University, as she sits down to talk to a group of women at one of the tables. "If you think the stupid things that people say are important, then you value yourself based on that. Women walk around with this weight in their heads that prevents them from doing things."
Dorrington, one of the guests at the evening, converses in a relaxed and conversational tone. "Science is not difficult. Because people think it is they don’t end up doing it. You don’t have to be exceptional to be a scientist – people like us are normal. We’ve just worked hard. I’m not Marie Curie – I am just a microbiologist."
Incidentally, Curie’s name linked the evening’s proceedings. Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize on two seperate occasions and in two seperate fields.
"Perhaps it is ingrained into our DNA to be so submissive, because we’ve been that way for so long," says Dr Janice Limson, a senior lecturer in Biotechnology. At mostly male-dominated departments she describes how she was always treated as "one of the boys". And at certain conferences many would often look straight past female scientists presuming they are the secretaries. She also lamented the lack of conversation in households about science.
"We all talk about politics and different crises at home. We don’t talk about science. If we did, it will help to encourage more people to get involved."
Gender gap
Dr Candice Christie from the Department of Human Kinetics and Ergonomics revealed several startling facts. For example some Rhodes scientific departments do not even have female academics, while in the last 20 years there have been no female Nobel Prize winners for chemistry and physics. Dr
Karen Bradshaw from the Computer Science and Information Technology departmemnts aimed to provide an answer to that. Women are seen as bad investments since they need time to have children and look after their families. Bradshaw argues that it is possible to be a scientist and to be a wife or mother, in the same way that it is possible to be a scientist and carry a handbag at the same time. She illustrated this bias by using computer science as an example. When this new science began in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the proportion of men and women involved were equal. In the 90s, the ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ connotations started and women began to shy away.
At the end of the evening one piece of information lingered. Bradshaw named an example of a talking Barbie doll, with one phrase "Maths class is tough." caused an uproar. By imagining a little girl, who looks up to Barbie as a role model -as opposed to successful and headstrong women – and who struggles with maths because her Barbie indoctrinated her to believe it is difficult, is really scary. But with more Women in Science events set to occur every year, perhaps recognising and motivating women might help lessen "the weight" in their minds.
