Last week
an EU campaign came to my attention that is designed to get more women/girls
into science. Unfortunately the “teaser” video was controversial at best and
has now left the internet-arena. The website “science-girl-thing.eu” however
isn’t too bad, if you ignore the lipstick-theme. What I find a bit odd is that
it is pretty clear that in the EU at least as many girls as boys start a
science career and the main problem is that not enough women reach the
science-top, which remains male dominated. Yet, the EU thinks they have to
target “girls” to become more interested in science. I would have been happier
if they had directed their efforts and especially their monetary budget to fund more research, but who am I to tell
the EU what is best.
One
feature of the website is a quiz in which you can “discover your inner
researcher”. Obviously, I did the quiz, which was a bit meager with just 3
questions to discover my dream job, but it wasn’t too far off: climatologist,
or maybe environmental engineer, hydrologist or marine biologist. Considering
that the real dream job, soil scientist, isn’t listed on the website, this is
probably as good as it will get.
At the same
time Alyssa asked bloggers to write down what we liked as children, how we are
now, and presumably how our youth shaped our future. Because anybody can become
anything, and you don’t have to be a nerd as a kid to end up being a scientist.
To be
honest though, I am starting to fail to see the point in arousing children,
teenagers and students to become scientists, when nobody is willing to put more
resources into education and science. But maybe I am too pessimistic.
I was
pretty much the little scientist as a child. My dad gave me little math-exercises
to do for fun, I would determine medicinal plants (weeds) in our garden and I
once sliced off the top of my finger trying to dissect something else to study
under my microscope. Until I was 18 I had a crazy amount of self-discipline: I
always had my homework done well ahead, I was never late for school and I
always went to bed at 21:30. I read insane amounts of books and I played the
violin.
Also I
dreamed of travel, of exotic places, and of seeing the world independently. Physical
geography seemed a logical choice of studies because it combined an interesting
mix of natural sciences with plenty excursions and opportunities for fieldwork
abroad. As much as I value different cultures, a country’s natural environment
is ultimately why I choose to go somewhere. I was very anti-Netherlands as a
student, but not for political reasons: I just missed the wild outdoors.
I quickly
lost most of the self-discipline and am now as any self-respecting scientist
very good at multitasking and pushing hard for imminent deadlines. I am so much
more creative when I have only very little time to finish a paper or set up a
new experiment… I am still interested in the same things as when I was younger,
reading, music, gardening, baking. I have more patience but less energy. I
still hold most of the ideas and ideals that I held as a teenager although
sometimes I forget what it was like to be younger.
Anyway: I
don’t think it mattered very much what I was like as a child. I grew up in an
environment that stimulated the (scientific) mind and I had all opportunities
to go to university and become educated. I don’t think the lack of role models is responsible for
certain children not becoming a scientist or any successful profession, but a
severe lack of opportunities.
