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Women in Science (January 28, 2005, One)

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Program Summary

“Anything you can do I can do better. Anything you can do I can do, too” sings Annie Oakley to Frank Butler in the musical Annie, Get Your Gun, insisting that she was just as good a shot as he, if not better. And she was right.

Certainly there are differences between men and women in physical strength; when it comes to sports, there are few in which they compete head to head. When it comes to academics, though, it’s a level playing field. Half of today’s baccalaureate graduates in math and science are female, but a large percentage drop out of academic research after that. Why is it so hard for more women to achieve success in the sciences? Could it be a difference in brain power?

The view of "innate differences" between men and women was put forth by the president of Harvard University. Women scientists criticized that position. Guests on this show, all female science professors, feel that the factors that keep women from entering and advancing in science are not biological, but cultural.

Guests

Nancy Hopkins, Amgen, Inc., professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Marianne Bronner-Fraser, Albert Billings Ruddock professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California

Meg Urry, professor of physics and director of the Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut

Nicole Weekes, associate professor of psychology at Pomona College in Claremont, California

Related Links and Resources

Association of Women in Science
BBC News, January 18, 2005: Harvard row over sex and science
Harvard, Office of the President, January 19, 2005:Letter from President Summers on women and science
National Science Foundation ADVANCE
4000 Years of Women in Science
National Academies Committee on Women in Science and Engineering: Gender Differences in Careers of Science , Engineering , and Mathematics Faculty
Nobel Prize Women in Science : Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries
PBS News Hour Extra, January 24, 2005: Harvard President's Comments Spark Debate About Gender & NewsHour Extra Teacher Resources

(show information | interactive summary for this segment)

For Discussion:

• For centuries, females were not encouraged to pursue an education. Why were women such as Elizabeth Blackwell, Marie Curie, and Rosalind Franklin able to succeed in their times?
• Read some of the interviews with female scientists and doctors at Women in Science. What backgrounds do they come from? What obstacles or biases, if any, did they have to overcome? How many have families?

Activities

A woman’s work is never done. Women have done far more through the ages than cook and clean. Visit 4000 Years of Women in Science to learn about women’s contributions to science from ancient times forward (the site was last updated in 2003, so some names may be missing). A quiz and crossword puzzle test your knowledge. You’ll meet 83 female physicists at Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics and can investigate careers in science and technology at Girl Power!

A different world. At Women in Science, a terrific Thinkquest project, students can read dozens of biographies of female doctors and scientists past and present. The site also offers interviews of many successful women in science and suggestions on how to do interviews themselves. The site links to SEED (Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development), which contains interviews with men and women of many races and ethnicities in science and technology. Students can compare and contrast the experiences of today’s female scientists with the struggles of those of the past (even as recently as the 1970s). They are also encouraged to write directly to the experts.

Higher, faster, farther. Women of NASA is an educational Web site that focuses on the skills needed to work in the space program and profiles women astronauts and scientists. At Ideas for Integrating Women of NASA into Your Curriculum, you’ll see many ways to fit the activities into your teaching. In the activity Occupations Chat Lesson, students can fill out self-evaluation tests and prepare questions to ask a NASA employee during special chat sessions. Women’s Work contains activities that explore ideas of women’s roles in life and work over the past century. Other activities invite students to run an astronaut-style obstacle course, design a mission patch and define career goals..

I am women, hear me roar. Ladies Taking Over the Labs, a lesson plan from the New York Times Network, looks at gender in the sciences and examines why women are still in the minority. At Women in Science (Amphitheater Public Schools), students create a graph and timeline of women in the sciences. Science NetLinks’ Women in Medicine: Past and Future studies two female doctors a century apart, compares their experiences, and discusses how womens’ status has changed in those 100 years. Girls and Technology (PBS Online NewsHour) talks to students about the gender gap in technology and boys’ and girls’ attitudes towards computers.

For more information and activities about women and minorities in science, visit Science Friday Kids’ Connection Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin, What Happened to the Mercury 13?, and Stars of the Universe.

Use the search box below to perform a Google search within any of the specifc sites or general domains mentioned in this Activities section.

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