It pays to keep women engaged with science

When it comes to interest in science, most people enter the world on a level playing field.

Boys and girls alike experience a natural sense of wonder at the world around them. Whether watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon or watching a meteor shower while lying on the grass, children start life with the innate curiosity every scientist needs.

Think of how they take things apart to see how they work, challenge one another with math puzzles and problem-solving games, and collect stray bugs and animals - my own childhood choice, an opossum, is not recommended. So why, in later years, do so few girls and women wind up exploring careers in science and math?

Culture and history, not nature, create most of the discrepancy between men and women in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Previously, our society saw no role for women in these fields, and such barriers take time to break down. Yet we know that schoolchildren are motivated to perform well in science and math, regardless of gender. And recent data indicate there's little to no difference in ability between female and male students - especially in countries where the culture values having both in the sciences.

In declaring Feb 11, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the United Nations highlights that just 28 percent of current researchers worldwide are women.

We need to keep more women, as well as people of color, engaged with science.

Having careers in science and math remain largely the purview of a minority of the population severely limits our talent pool. That's a threat for large sectors of the economy - and for our ability as a nation to problem-solve some of society's biggest challenges, from infrastructure to disease to climate change.

What's more, having more women and people of color on teams improves scientific outcomes: Researchers have found that scientific papers with more diverse authorship receive more citations, and that a tech startup or pharmaceutical company with more women on its board of directors is more likely to succeed.

I've thought about this a lot since the December death of groundbreaking scientist Vera Rubin. She discovered evidence of dark matter, but she faced numerous unnecessary barriers in her work.

I can only imagine what she might have accomplished if her pursuit of astronomy had been helped, rather than hindered, by some of the people around her.

When I consider how I wound up a scientist, I credit my parents who nurtured my curiosity, tolerating the insect collections and pet opossum, and teachers who encouraged me. When I arrived at the points in my career where relatively few women remained, I retained a stubborn love for science and had supportive male mentors who didn't treat women in laboratories as an unknown species.

I was fortunate. But luck shouldn't determine whether a promising student stays in science. We need to take advantage of the potential in bright and curious girls, allowing them to be as successful as their male counterparts.

That starts with removing all the artificial barriers to success. Parents and teachers can help work against cultural biases, by encouraging and nurturing their daughters' and female students' early interest in science. And people in leadership - from elected officials to school principals - can speak up for a vision of a future STEM workforce that reflects the population as a whole.

Women don't need token accommodations or to be treated as an afterthought. Their value is inherent. But from preschool to graduate school and beyond, we must support girls and boys, men and women.

It's on all of us to foster future interest in STEM and help our children develop the necessary skills to succeed. Our society will benefit from it.

The Dallas Morning News

让更多的女性投身科学吧

说到对科学的兴趣，大部分人都是在同一起点走进科学的世界。

男孩和女孩一样，都会自然地体验到周围世界的神奇。无论是观察毛虫破茧成蝶，还是躺在草地上仰望流星雨，孩子们从人生伊始都带着每一个科学家所需要的那种与生俱来的好奇心。

想想看，孩子们是如何把东西拆得七零八落，来探究里面的构造；如何用数学题和解题游戏来相互挑战，如何收养“迷途”的小虫和小动物——我童年选的宠物是一只负鼠，但这个选择不推荐。那么为什么，长大以后，却只有很少的女生和成年女性选择以科学和数学为职业呢？

文化和历史，而非天性，造成了男女在科学、技术、工程和数学（简称科技工数）领域的大部分差异。过去，我们的社会使女性无法在这些领域发挥作用，而这些障碍需要一定的时间去打破。然而，我们知道学童无论性别，都希望自己在科学和数学方面表现优异。最近的数据表明，男女学生之间几乎没有能力方面的差异——特别是在那些文化传统上同等重视培养男女科学人才的国家里。

联合国在宣布每年的2月11日为“妇女和女童参与科学国际日”时，特别指出全世界现有科研人员中，女性只占28%。

我们需要让更多的女性以及有色人种投身科学。

科学和数学领域的大部分职业仍只限于少数人群，这严重限制了我们人才库的规模，对经济的大部分领域都构成了威胁——削弱了我们作为国家解决一些诸如基础设施建设、疾病控制、气候变化等最困难问题的能力。

此外，让更多的女性和有色人种加入团队也能提高科学成果：研究人员发现，更多样化的创作团队所发表的科学论文，被引用的次数也更多。而有更多女性董事成员的科技创业公司或制药公司，成功的几率也更大。

自去年12月，具有突破性贡献的科学家薇拉·鲁宾去世后，我就对这一问题思考良多。鲁宾发现了暗物质存在的证据，但在工作中却遭遇了种种不必要的阻碍。

我只能想象，倘若她对天文事业的追求，得到的是周围一些人的帮助而非阻碍，她又会取得什么样的成就。

当我回想自己是怎样走上科学道路时，我要将功劳归功于我的父母，他们培养了我的好奇心，容忍了我的昆虫收藏和负鼠宠物。我还要感谢我的老师，是他们鼓励了我。当我开始职业生涯，但周围却没有几名女性时，我仍然对科学保持了执着的热爱，并得到了男性导师的支持，他们并没有像对待未知物种那样对待实验室里的女性。

(本段的翻译有奖征集中)

这就需要我们从清除一切人为限制成功的障碍开始做起。父母和教师可以共同努力，抵制文化中的偏见，鼓励和培养他们的女儿和女学生对科学萌发的早期兴趣。而领导者——从当选的官员到学校校长——都应该呼吁构建一个美好愿景：一个能够反映整体人口男女构成的未来“科技工数”的从业大军。

女性不需要特殊照顾或被当作候补对待。她们的价值与生俱来。但从幼儿园到研究生院乃至更高的学术机构， 我们都必须同等地支持男孩和女孩，成年男性和女性。

我们大家需要一起努力，来营造未来对“科技工数”的兴趣，帮助我们的孩子学会取得成功的必要技能。我们的社会将因此而受益。

上期获奖者：长春　吉林大学附属实验学校高二5班　季知林