Scientist in a laboratory. (Photo : Reuters / Michael Dadler)
In honor of the International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, Microsoft approached a group of girls and asked them about how they truly felt about science. The video, entitled, “Girls Do Science,” was only posted on YouTube a month ago, but it has now gone viral with more 2.1 million views.
Apparently, girls love science. Tech savvy girls build their own websites, while young engineers-to-be build robots and small computers. One of the girls who were interviewed made a functional device that opened her refrigerator door for her.
It is of a huge surprise to find out that most of them have already started to quit their robotics classes. As it would turn out, their decisions only to stop with their interests in science were pushed by today’s television advertisements and marketing campaigns – majority of which showed boys doing science, as pointed out by Business Insider.
Plus, to make matters worse, some other people would even ask them outright, “Isn’t that for boys?” People who have often wondered why there has been a certain clear shortage in women when it comes to science has been explained, in not so many words, by the viral video.
Girls, at such a young age, end up feeling discouraged to pursue what they love most – science. Hopefully, they would opt to stand up to sexism in science once they reach college and will continue to pursue the art and craft that they had once nearly mastered when they were just children.
“The idea that ‘talking about the presence of sexism scares women away from the field’ is wrong and counterproductive,” said Katie Mack, a post-doctoral fellow at Melbourne University, according to New Scientist. “Talking about the presence of sexism is the only thing that can help reduce it.”
