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Interesting Article - here

Putting girls into the equation
After making gains in recent years, female enrolment in math and science programs is dropping once again

Sarah Schmidt CanWest News Service Monday, January 03, 2005

Marilyn Vassell was determined to encourage her daughter's interest in math and science. Anika, 11, excelled at both, but her mother felt there were not enough cultural cues to keep the youngster interested and thinking about a career in the sciences, so she signed her up last year in the Science AL!VE girls club in their hometown of Burnaby, B.C.

"I don't know what is going on with the boys, but I know what is not going on with the girls. I'm doing what I can to open the door for her and her friends around her," Ms. Vassell said of her only child.

After gaining ground for many years in areas long known as male bastions -- math, science and engineering -- girls and young women are falling behind.

"You always think we're on a linear line of progress. It's not true. The pendulum has swung back," said Monique Frize, professor of engineering at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Along with University of Ottawa historian Ruby Heap, Ms. Frize has just launched a three-year research project to determine what would make faculties of engineering more woman-friendly so girls like Anika Vassell will consider enrolling in engineering and building a career in the sciences.

Although women account for a significant majority of undergraduate students at Canadian universities -- about 60% -- a declining number are enrolled in engineering programs. After making gains throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the first-year enrolment trends are the most alarming, said Deborah Wolfe, director of education at the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers.

"When you start looking at the first-year going down, it's alarming. Everybody is starting to talk about it. Why is this happening and what are we going to do about it? We thought the programs [to encourage women in engineering] were working. Maybe we slacked off a bit."

At some universities, the percentage of women in first-year engineering is less than half of the percentage in total undergraduate enrolment in the faculty. For example, at the University of Ottawa, women accounted for 7% of the first-year class last year, compared to 19% in the entire undergraduate engineering program.

The gap is even larger at Dalhousie University in Halifax, where only 6.4% of the first-year class were women last year, compared to 19.4% in the undergraduate program. At the University of Moncton in New Brunswick, 6.5% of the first-year class were women, compared to 13% overall.

Ms. Frize's research project is focusing on the exceptions, to find out what these engineering faculties are doing to keep their female numbers above 20%, including McGill and Concordia universities in Montreal, Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., the University of Toronto and the University of Calgary.

Signs of trouble are surfacing well before young women consider their post-secondary education options.

The Canadian results of the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment, released jointly last month by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada, shows a significant shift in the science results.

In the 2000 test, 15-year-old girls in Canada performed slightly better than boys in science, but the margin was considered statistically insignificant (a two-point difference). Three years later, Canadian boys outperformed girls by 11 points, considered statistically significant. (Boys continue to outperform girls in math, and girls continue to outperform boys in literacy skills.)

Girls in Canada dropped a staggering 15 points in science between 2000 and 2003, compared to the marginal decrease of two points for boys. And girls' science scores dropped in all provinces, ranging from an 11-point drop in British Columbia to 26 in Quebec. The gender gap in favour of boys was considered statistically significant in Manitoba (17 points), Ontario (11 points), Nova Scotia (11 points) and British Columbia (10 points).

Despite these setbacks in science, the issue did not register on the political radar in the same way as the gender gap in reading.

Pierre Reid, Quebec's Minister of Education and chairman of the council of education ministers, focused on the persistent gender gap in favour of girls in reading and outlined initiatives in the education system to help boys improve their literacy skills.

This emphasis is part of the problem, Ms. Frize said. "It's all about the poor boys. The girls used to be slightly better [in science], but now the boys are substantially better. That's a real reversal of educational effort."

Jennifer Flanagan, head of Actua, a national organization that represents a network of groups dedicated to increasing the scientific literacy of young Canadians, puts it another way.

When Actua noticed a trend in declining enrolment among girls from 1993 to 1998, it launched a national program to increase the participation rate of girls at its day camps, including such all-girls programming as the SCIENCE AL!VE girls clubs.

"I can tell you what we have felt. The feeling overall is that there isn't a problem. In fact, what gets a lot of coverage if girls have been outperforming boys in science and math, what we hear is boys are falling behind," Ms. Flanagan said.

Despite the end of overt talk about men's jobs and women's jobs, the origins of the problem could lie in persistent gender stereotyping.

Judy Lupart, an educational psychologist at the University of Alberta, recently conducted a survey of more than 1,400 students in Grades 7 and 10 scattered across four Alberta school districts. She asked about their academic choices and career plans. Ms. Lupart also interviewed parents regarding their assumptions about academic performance and career options for their daughters and sons.

The results confirmed a predominant perception among girls of having to work harder at science than boys. Girls' aversion to careers in science and information technology also grew as they aged, while boys' interest remained relatively strong and stable in Grades 7 and 10.

More interestingly, parents' attitudes reinforced these findings. "Parents essentially mirror the gender-stereotypical views of what their daughter will do and what their son will do. I imagine they're still getting the message about what are appropriate career aspirations," Ms. Lupart said.

Ms. Vassell stands apart from this pack. She has always made a concerted effort to steer her daughter toward activities that do not fit into gender stereotypes. And because she was discouraged from the sciences when she was a girl, Ms. Vassell was determined to open up possibilities for her daughter.

She just did not think it would require so much effort on her part.

"She doesn't get discouraged," she said of her daughter, "but she doesn't get the kind of encouragement I had hoped."

posted by Netwoman @ 1:53 PM