Breaking the Barriers

Although 47% of Harvard first-years are women, they constituted 62% of those who failed the first Quantitative Reasoning exam.

And even though they were only 62%, only women were anxious enough to attend the QRR help sessions.

This extreme math anxiety prevalent among first-year women has been a source of contentious debate, both within the University community and beyond. Some are inclined to think that the causes are societal, while others believe that women are inherently less successful at mastering math and science. Yet rather than determining which reason is the ultimate cause and continuing this chicken-and-egg argument, we need to make changes in our educational system so that women are as frequently inclined to pursue math and science as men, and there are no opportunities denied to anyone on the basis of gender.

If the cause of the lack of women in science is societal--and it very well may be--then there are several courses of action available. Throughout the 1980s, Dartmouth realized that the rate of attrition of science majors was significantly higher in women than in men. The administration decided to combat this problem with a Women In Science program for incoming first-years, actively encouraging first-year women to pursue internships in science. Following Dartmouth's lead, Radcliffe has created the Science Alliance program, which introduces incoming first-year women to the scientific facilities at Harvard, acquaints them with the science faculty, and, most importantly, introduces them to one another to foster support.

Harvard has Radcliffe as an invaluable resource for women, which is why it is even more surprising that women are somehow slighted out of the science fields here. Not only do women fail the QRR test more often than their ratio would suggest, but women also constitute a very small number of the upper-level first-year math classes, Math 25 and 55.

"We definitely need to encourage more women at a young age to pursue math at a greater depth," says Sandra E. Bendeck, '96, President of Women in Science at Harvard. She notes that since a student's high school preparation often correlates with their performance in introductory level math courses, more efforts should be made by the Admissions Committee to recruit women with exceptionally strong math backgrounds.

It is crucial that women pursue math and science in greater numbers because studies have shown that gender does play a significant role in science research, influencing theories and data collection. As Sue V. Rosser, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California told Chemical and Engineering News, in the past men (have) translated the experience of being male to their research." In the 1950s, for example, all-male teams of primate researchers observed male-male, male-female, and female-infant interactions. Not until scientists Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey appeared on the scene were female-female interactions even noted.

In addition, gender plays a role in medicine, and, ultimately, life and death. Angioplastic surgery is a highly developed and sophisticated technique, yet women die at a rate ten times more than men as a result of the procedure, a discrepancy that may possibly be a result of the surgery being developed by using the male body as a model.

Ultimately, the most compelling argument is that for women to achieve true equality in society, they must pursue math and science just as they must pursue all other fields without regard to gender. And without the backing and support of their Colleges and Universities and a recognition of female talent, women in math and science are simply not as effective. Although women enter graduate school in the sciences at the same rate as men, a significant number fail to graduate. The reason is not that women are not capable--it is that the female mentors so desperately needed are either not available or easily accessible.

Here at Harvard, Women In Science tries to combat the problem by networking, alerting women to other opportunities, and by giving them role models. Yet for this gaping gender discrepancy to be truly solved, it needs to be identified earlier than at college, namely, at the elementary and secondary school level.

In an attempt to attract more women to math and science, some experts suggest making these fields more "female-friendly." We need to be careful with such labels, as they run the risk of insinuating that women are inherently uninterested in math and science. Such a warm and fuzzy term detracts from the necessity of changing the image of science. Science is not being changed to make it easier for women; rather, it is being made more applicable and relevant to them. Emphasizing the usefulness and positive social benefits of science makes it more of a real option for young women who may not necessarily think of themselves as scientists if the only role models that they see in textbooks are male.

All of these suggestions are not just for women only. Men, too, will benefit from such changes, as they will become more used at an earlier age to seeing women in the fields of math and science, leading them to accept and respect their female peers when they enter the working world.

Programs such as Women In Science ultimately contribute to helping more than just a select group of young women. Not only do women make up approximately half of Harvard; they make up more than half of the world. Encouraging women to pursue scientific career paths allows them to offer new perspectives and fresh insights in the fields of medicine, the sciences, and mathematics. Thus it can be said that improving the status of women in society and striving towards equality improves not just the lives of women, but of society as a whole.