By Leticia Gonzales, Special to The Free Press
You may have heard the myths growing up — “Boys are better at math and science than girls,” or “Girls aren’t good with technology.”
College student Leigh Clanton, a 20-year-old majoring in biology, chemistry and biochemistry at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, knows first hand what those myths can do to young girls.
As a second-grader growing up in a mountain community near Estes Park, Colo., Clanton was fed up with math because all of the boys in her class finished their assignments before her, which she said made her feel stupid. In order to compete with the boys, Clanton started to rush through her math assignments.
Her grades suffered. Luckily, her mom took notice.
“My teacher had told (my mom) at parent-teacher conferences that the boys weren’t scoring very well and that she was trying to dispel this time-competition in the classroom because it was very counter-productive,” said Clanton. “I don’t know if it was actually true that the boys weren’t good at math, but it gave me the confidence to take as much time as I needed with my math assignments to get the answers correct.”
Her strategy paid off. And having her mom as a role model helped nurture her desire to go into science.
“I suppose having a mother that majored in engineering was a strong influence on me,” Clanton said. “I never grew up with the idea that girls were bad at math or shouldn’t major in the sciences.”
Clanton never let gender roles stop her. But she’s still in the minority.
The field of engineering is still dominated by men. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s latest data, women received 18 percent of the 78,200 engineering degrees given out in 2003-04. The numbers were the same in 1998. In 1996, the percentage was just above 16 percent.
Computer science is another field with a low percentage of female participants. The National Science Foundation reported that women received about 28 percent of the computer science bachelor’s degrees in 2003, down from 38 percent in 1985.
But as a student in another male-dominated field, Clanton said she has never felt unequal to her male counterparts. However, she does recognize there are still others that may not see it that way.
“As a potential candidate for medical school, I have occasionally been asked if I would like to have a family at some point,” said Clanton. “In a male-dominated field such as medicine, the demands of a full-time career have been known to affect family life and parenting.”
But Clanton, who is toying with the idea of pursuing an career in medicine, can already foresee the challenges any health care professional would face.
“Being on call can mean that important family events are missed and family time cut short,” she said. ”This is a difficulty that faces men and women alike, however.”
Cassandra Borg, a 23-year-old human biology major at Minnesota State University, said it’s challenging dealing with the old-fashioned stigma that women are meant to be moms and teachers, not doctors and engineers.
“Some men have questioned why I wish to pursue such a demanding career when I could find a man to take care of me,” said Borg. ”This is particularly true in the dating world.”
While the stigma may exist outside of the classroom, it doesn’t seem to exist inside of it.
Krista Wassenaar, a 24-year-old civil engineering major at MSU, is one of two female students in her senior class. Despite being in the minority, she said she doesn’t feel she is treated any differently than her male counterparts.
“I don’t see any of the things that I have to do to be in this field as a challenge,” Wassenaar said. “I have gained the respect of my peers and my professors.
“I feel that we communicate well, and that the so-called challenges are something that both genders have to deal with ... They just come with the territory,” she said.
Wassenaar, who is president of the American Society of Civil Engineers and vice-president of the Society of Women Engineers, said she was never pushed as a child to go into science and engineering.
“I had been exposed to it, but it was always just something that the boys did,” she said. “I was more encouraged to do it because it was just something that I enjoy.”
MSU Sophomore Marji Ploeger, who is majoring in biochemistry, acknowledged that women still are sometimes viewed as the weaker sex.
“I believe that one of the biggest challenges that us women face is simply convincing unconvinced persons that we are also very capable to be in this kind of field,” Ploeger said. “Women do tend to be more emotionally driven and nurturing people, but are those actually weaknesses? I don’t think so. But some people do think so, and that is what we are up against.”
