‘Star Trek’ Jokes in Class Make Women Feel ‘Unwelcome,’ Says University of Washington Prof
“To draw more girls into STEM fields, it’s not enough to provide more learning opportunities,” Cheryan claims. “This geeky image is at odds with the way that many girls see themselves. Work from our lab shows that when high-school girls see Star Trek posters and video games in a computer-science classroom, they are less interested than boys in taking the course.”
Instead, Cheryan says, science classrooms should put up soothing art and nature posters to attract the feminine eye. Cheryan didn’t, of course, determine whether irrelevant posters featuring works of art and fuzzy photos of leaves would have an impact on male interest—or whether she was implicitly stereotyping women as attracted only to typically “beautiful” things.
Cheryan also found that women who had an interaction with a computer science major wearing a “I Code Therefore I Am” t-shirt or who identified Mystery Science Theater as their favorite show, also saw their interest in the major drop, apparently because women are shallow and don’t find geeks attractive.
She suggests that computer science majors try to attract more women by wearing plain tee shirts and liking The Office. Or perhaps they should just wear man-leggings with their “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” t-shirts, and admit to scheduling work hours around Lifetime movie schedules.
The point, lost in Cheryan’s Star Trek screed, of course, may be that tailoring career counseling to individual students and helping them to understand that workplace culture is an aspect of vocational choice, is key to helping both male and female students pursue their individual educational goals.
“To draw more girls into STEM fields, it’s not enough to provide more learning opportunities,” Cheryan claims. “This geeky image is at odds with the way that many girls see themselves. Work from our lab shows that when high-school girls see Star Trek posters and video games in a computer-science classroom, they are less interested than boys in taking the course.”
Instead, Cheryan says, science classrooms should put up soothing art and nature posters to attract the feminine eye. Cheryan didn’t, of course, determine whether irrelevant posters featuring works of art and fuzzy photos of leaves would have an impact on male interest—or whether she was implicitly stereotyping women as attracted only to typically “beautiful” things.
Cheryan also found that women who had an interaction with a computer science major wearing a “I Code Therefore I Am” t-shirt or who identified Mystery Science Theater as their favorite show, also saw their interest in the major drop, apparently because women are shallow and don’t find geeks attractive.
She suggests that computer science majors try to attract more women by wearing plain tee shirts and liking The Office. Or perhaps they should just wear man-leggings with their “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” t-shirts, and admit to scheduling work hours around Lifetime movie schedules.
The point, lost in Cheryan’s Star Trek screed, of course, may be that tailoring career counseling to individual students and helping them to understand that workplace culture is an aspect of vocational choice, is key to helping both male and female students pursue their individual educational goals.