Science, It's a Girl Thing!

It's no secret that today, science and engineering are male-dominated fields. In 2012, the European Commission published the above video in an effort to get more girls interested in science. TL;DR: the video was a massive flop and the original video was actually taken down, most likely due to the massive number of dislikes it received.

The biggest problem with the video is that it tackles the issue from entirely the wrong perspective: rather than empowering girls by telling them that they're just as capable of doing science as anyone else, it instead sends the message that science can be "girly" enough for them. It looks more like the girls are just there for a photo shoot than to actually do science! On top of that, what's with all the scenes that have been spliced into the video that depict makeup? Are girls only interested in science if it's related to beauty products? Ultimately, the video really just tells girls that they can still conform to societal expectations of what girls should like while being scientists.

The video also opens with a male scientist looking confused when he sees the three girls walk into his lab, which I find disturbing. Immediately, the video presents an image where men and women are somehow competing with each other, that the girls are seen as intruders in the man's territory. Not only does this reinforce the idea that science is somehow meant for men, it also goes against the heart and soul of science which revolved around collaboration.

Fixing this inequality, along with any other inequalities between women and men, is not simply about encouraging girls to do this or that but is really about dispelling the gender stereotypes that gave rise to the inequality in the first place. There's nothing wrong with liking makeup or wanting to be a model, but a video that's intended to encourage girls to be scientists has no need for things like that. How about showing them how useful and important science can be? If we want to convince girls--or anyone, for that matter--to be more interested in science, we should be showing them that science is a worthwhile career by allowing them to make meaningful contributions to society. In doing so, they will be empowering themselves.