Portrait of an Unexpected Twitter Storm
Woooo buddy, it’s been quite the 34 hours. Sunday night I was looking for super hero t-shirts in the “girls” section at a Big Box Store , not finding them, and then unwittingly jumped down a rabbit hole. From the home, to the classroom, to the store, our culture reinforces limitations on children due to their sex/gender. As a scientist who works on inclusivity in academia and science, I spend a lot of time thinking about the pipeline. I am particularly concerned about the scarcity and disparity of science & science fiction oriented toys , clothes , and outreach for girls. A situation that reinforces, and is reinforced by, widespread gender norms. Parents underestimate their daughters interest in science and think science is harder for them- despite no differences in daughter and son interest or performance . Female teachers anxious about their math ability affect the math abilities of their female students. And girls are more likely than are boys to think their teachers think t