Dr. Valian depicts a great number of statistics about the topic Women at the Top in Science. Firstly, let me sum up the things she talks about in her work. In this passage, she lists two views on what we usually think are the reasons why there are less women at the top in science and then uses a lot of statistics and references to point out the shortage in these two views. After subverting the old view in the readers’ brain, she states her own thoughts about the true reason which are listed below.

Secondly, let me talks about my views on the three most important views in this brilliant work.

1. WOMEN ARE NOT LESS TALENTED THAN MEN.

In fact, there is no talent in human beings that can be assessed. And even if there has this kind of talent difference between men and women, it can be improved by effort. Admittedly, girls may lack some spatial abilities, but they can use effort to improve. And with the effort, the ratio difference at top is notably decreasing. In Asian, especially in China, a lot of girls have better grades than boys. And as for me, I took six AP exams and all got Fives.My performance, I think and it’s true, is better than most of the boys in the world.

But I am suspicious about the point that more boys intend to go into science has no relation to the sex difference. I think these two things, at least, are partially related. In university, GPA is a quite important thing about the future. All students want to get higher GPA, so girls may be pushed to choose more classes in which they could get a high GPA such as art, but choose less science classes in which they would pay more effort to get a high GPA.

2. AN INTEREST IN FULL LIFE IS NOT A REASON FOR FEWER WOMEN IN PROFESSIONAL CAREERS.

Granted, women have lots of things to do—take care of babies, do housework and so on. But with statistics, we can see, women with children publish works that are no less than women without children do. So this is only an excuse. And as a feminist, an important thing I want to ask is why these works are all for women? Why does the society think like that? If women were expected to pursue professional life, maybe they can do better.

3. GENDER SCHEMAS ABOUT WOMEN CAUSE AN ACCUMULATION OF DISADVANTAGE, LEADING TO LESS SUCCESS.

The answer to the question I raise in Section Two is gender schema. We often hear some parents teaching their girls to “act as a girl”. But what does a “girl” look like? A girl must be expressive and nurturing, but have less ability in reasoning thinking. So if a girl gets high education in the sciences, people around her may think that she is not a “girl”. And because for girls, there have already had a schema like that, society and human become suspicious about girls’ ability and  are unfair when making decision. This unfairness in the work place leads to an accumulation of disadvantages, which totally reduces the number of women in top.

Here comes a question: Why does this schema come out? The cut of binary categories is definitely a reason. But I think what’s more important is that in the beginning of human existence, women were born with less strength and power than men. And during that period, what people need is food and what is needed to make food is strength. With less strength, women lose the dominant status and have to rely on men. And this depiction that women cannot do many things continues. Then this leads to another question: Why didn’t women’s depiction change when the world moved into a period in which strength became quite unimportant? In fact, in history, some women tried to change this situation. For example, Emperor Wu, who was the first female emperor in Chinese history, made a lot of effort to raise women’s status. But things didn’t change. This kind of status situation has continued for a long time, so men and women will continuingly act as what they are in the past.

Thirdly, there is a thing that was pointed out in the passage that I think is quite important. I am not surprised that men have an unfair view about women in work place, but I am stunned that women also have an unfair view about the women. In work place, female employers will tend to choose men, even when the women employees are more competitive. The society’s view of women influences women’s opinion. But how could a woman meet fair situation when she thinks that women are less competitive? This is a very important thing, and I wish all of my viewers could think about that.

Reference: Women at the top of Science—-And Elsewhere