“Underrepresentation” AND Misrepresentation. – Well-behaved women rarely make (scientific) history

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Though this is not supposed to be a comparative essay, after reading this chapter, I couldn’t help but notice the huge difference in opinions between chapter 1 and chapter 2 when they are actually analyzing the same issue. Chapter 1 talks about the fact that there are less women in the field of math and science because of gender schema and the accumulation of advantage. Dr.Valian said that men are actually “privileged” because people usually assume they are more capable of succeeding in math and science than women are. Therefore, women are becoming less and less confident because they are constantly being underrepresented. In chapter 2, Dr.Kimura talks about the role specific cognitive abilities play in in the sex differences. She comes to the following conclusions: men are better at spatial task and female are better at verbal memory. It’s not that females are not as intelligent as males; it is just females possess skills that make them strive in other fields besides math and science. I had a hard time figuring out what she really meant. Could she really be saying that it is okay or even reasonable for less women to succeed in math and sciences? In my opinion, being different doesn’t justify the problem at all.

In chapter 1, we learned that women are being brainwashed into believing that they are not actually good enough. By saying there’s less women in the field of math and science simply because they don’t possess the ability to do as well doesn’t really help boost women’s confidence, does it? Personally, I feel like in a way she’s trying to tell us to just stop trying to fix the problem because from the data that she found, there’s no way we can accomplish as much as the boys do in the field of science. She starts off by saying that “underrepresentation” is not the word we should be using. Women are not underrepresented. We have just been looking in all the wrong places. What really surprised me is how she said if the role were reversed, we wouldn’t be saying that males were being underrepresented. This statement really makes me question just how professional the she is and how much she actually cares about this topic. Instead of actually addressing the issue and helping to solve it, she is saying that we shouldn’t be making a fuss about it because there are men out there being underrepresented, too.

At the end of the essay, she talks about how the society is now offering more opportunities to women than to men and how it could bring harm to the field of math and science. Honestly, it only goes to show how underrepresented women really are. The situation is so severe that people need to intentionally give women more chances to succeed in the field when they shouldn’t even have to do that if there were equal opportunities to start with. Plus, they don’t just hire women because they are women. They hire them simply because they have the ability to succeed. “It is injustice to men”. Is it, really? Gender inequality has been around for way too long. It is time for women to get an equal shot at what they are passionate about doing.

It is interesting though how she brought up the word “misrepresentation”. To some extent, I do feel like as women, we are often misrepresented by, for example, the media. We are told that girls are supposed to be secretaries and boys are supposed to be engineers. We are told that girls are nurturing and boys are strong and independent. And almost unconsciously, we act a certain way just to fit the stereotypes that are not always necessarily true. However, we are definitely being underrepresented as well. In fact, I believe they coexist in this issue. Misrepresentation could lead to underrepresentation and vice versa. Nonetheless, both are problems that should be solved in order for more women to succeed in math and science.

Lastly, this essay reminds me of Larry Summer’s talk. He said something along the lines of “it would be easier if it was a social issue.” I do not believe women are less capable than men in any field of study. It could be true that they are good at different things. In fact, everyone’s different, regardless of the gender. Everyone thinks differently and has his/her own strengths and weaknesses. However, that’s what makes everything so much more challenging, diverse and interesting. Though I might not completely agree with Dr.Kimura, I do appreciate being able to look at this topic in a totally different perspective because I believe more perspectives are needed for us to even begin to understand the reasons why we have this issue and how to make it better.

“As a society, we need to continue to encourage people to go beyond stereotypes and recognize the contributions that each individual, male or female, can make to the workplace.” (Summer.harvard.edu, 2013)

Sara Camilli says:

September 4, 2015 at 2:16 pm

Hi Charlotte! I really enjoyed reading your blog post, especially the part when you mentioned that companies hire women not because they are women, but because they are qualified to do the job. I would like to add to that a bit, and say that gender bias against the woman makes it even more of a credit her when she is actually hired in a STEM field. It can be harder for women to get these jobs, and they must be perhaps even a bit overly qualified, due to the ingrained stigma that men can do the job better. Dr. Kimura seems to be convinced that companies will be favoring women and giving them the advantage, which will be detrimental to the company as a whole. I disagree- there are plenty of qualified women that will do the job just as well, if not better, than men, and these are the kinds of women that will be chosen for the scholarships she references.