23/02/2018

Project in Brasilia brings girls closer to mathematics.

The study “Expectations of brilliance determine gender distribution across different disciplines,” published in January in the journal “Science,” states that women are less present in fields of knowledge where brilliance and innate talent are believed to be more important than work and effort.

It's common to say that men go into the sciences and women into the humanities. But the reality is more complex: there are significant variations within both fields.

There are few women in mathematics, physics, and computer science, many in biology and neuroscience. Women are the majority in psychology and history, and a rarity in philosophy and economics.

The study concludes that a widespread, and unfounded, belief that women lack this innate talent leads them to avoid disciplines where intellectual brilliance is, rightly or wrongly, assumed to be indispensable.

How can we break down a cultural stereotype that deprives many areas of science of the contribution of half of humanity?

The authors even suggest that the way to attract women to "difficult" disciplines would be to value intellectual brilliance less, emphasizing the importance of hard work more. I don't think that's the way to go.

In an article published in "The New York Times," my colleague Amie Wilkinson, a tenured professor at the University of Chicago, highlighted the importance of role models: the best way to assure a young woman interested in science that she is in the right place is through other women who are successful and happy in their scientific careers.

Reader Luiza Ramos, a master's student in philosophy at UnB, expressed very similar ideas in a message she sent me at the end of 2017, lamenting the scarcity of such examples in her field: "I had many more female professors when I studied engineering than in philosophy."

Luiza introduced me to the project “The Girl Who Calculated,” a fantastic initiative launched a year ago by a group of young women from the Brasília area, with the goal of “making girls feel comfortable in STEM fields!”

The initial provocation came from Erica Oliveira, a physics graduate and teacher in the public school system of the Federal District. A big fan, like me, of the series "Cosmos" by astronomer Carl Sagan. Distressed by "a predominantly male environment that is becoming increasingly exclusionary for women," in January 2017 Erica posted a challenge on Facebook: "Women from Brasília studying STEM fields, let's do a volunteer project for girls in public schools?"

Among the many who responded was Lilah Fialho, a graduate and doctoral candidate in physics at UnB. "From then on, Lilah masterfully spearheaded the overall administration of the project, so much so that after a month we were already working on it," explains Erica. Check out the project here .

"The Girl Who Calculated" offers free tutoring in mathematics and other STEM subjects to girls' classes organized by the schools themselves. The highest participation has been at the elementary school level: "We think this is wonderful, because we realize that the barriers that keep girls away from science start early!", says Lilah.

The project already has one hundred registered monitors, undergraduate and graduate students, who go to schools to teach classes. They are all women. "We want the girls to have a female role model as a teacher and friend, a woman who knows math and is there to teach them."

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