British girls think physics is for white boys only, MPs told
Girls do not take physics at A-level because they think the subject is only for white boys, MPs have been told.
No mention of female scientists in the national curriculum contributes to “the message society gives” to discourage girls from picking physics, leading physicist Prof Dame Athene Donald said.
“If you are black or if you are a woman, you don’t see yourself fitting in,” she said.
In 2021, 23 percent of physics A-level entrants were female.
This is a slight increase on previous years.
Prof Donald, from the University of Cambridge, told the Commons Science and Technology Committee it was “relevant” that “most of the images one sees of scientists, physicists, are white males”.
Teachers should try to “actively counter” messages from wider society that may discourage girls and children belonging to ethnic minorities from certain subjects, she added.
“In my generation I know lots of women who said ‘I would have loved to do sciences at A-level, but my school discouraged me’. I don’t for one moment expect that still to be true, but there’s a difference between active discouragement and no active encouragement.”
The panel session comes after a government adviser was criticised for saying girls avoid physics because of its “hard maths”.
Social mobility adviser and head teacher Katharine Birbalsingh said physics was not a subject girls “tend to fancy”, adding: “I just think they don’t like it.”
The IOP said it was alarmed by the comments, and Ms Birbalsingh later said her language had been “clunky”.
Prof Donald said Ofsted could help encourage girls to choose A-level physics by tracking the gender balance of subjects as part of its school inspections.
“If Ofsted made gender equity an issue then every school would have to think, in primary school as well, ‘what are we doing, without thinking about it are we giving boys different games to play, or different tasks?’.”
In response, Ofsted’s Dr Jasper Green told the committee that school inspectors were already addressing how to improve girls’ participation in science and maths, “but we are focusing on the quality of education, on early education, on subjects, and all of those moves are the right ones to encourage wider participation at A-level”.
He said gender balance could become something for Ofsted to consider assessing in the future, but that there were “challenges” in both measuring and improving it.
See more here: bbc.co.uk
Header image: Getty Images
Editor’s note: Should not pupils being put forward for A-levels be determined on academic ability, rather than what sex they are?
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Iga Sablianka
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this is cool
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Howdy
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“Social mobility adviser and head teacher Katharine Birbalsingh said physics was not a subject girls “tend to fancy”, adding: “I just think they don’t like it.””
A perfectly reasonable conclusion.
Social mobility adviser?? That just adds to the problem.
“If Ofsted made gender equity an issue then every school would have to think, in primary school as well,”
There’s the agenda.
“Ofsted’s Dr Jasper Green told the committee that school inspectors were already addressing how to improve girls’ participation in science and maths,”
Thumbscrews? Why even try if girls don’t want to know?
“but we are focusing on the quality of education, on early education, on subjects, and all of those moves are the right ones to encourage wider participation at A-level”
I’ll believe it when I see it.
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jessia noria
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
“If you are black or if you are a woman, you don’t see yourself fitting in.” said leading physicist Prof Dame Athene Donald. No mention in this article of Madame Curie, who co-won two Nobel prizes (one in physics and one in chemistry) and her daughter who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry with her mother. And I seldom read about the history of George Washington Caver and Booker T. Washington who were visited by an US President (or Presidents?) and Thomas Edison and Henry Ford being extolled by those Blacks who claim that the white US population has been totally against Blacks. Even though in the history of the US there was a Civil War and a President killed who freed the Black slaves.
Many males do not major in physics because a physics requires great mathematical skills which many men, nor women, do not have or have not developed.
Have a good day, Jerry
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