ActionPapers

EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT: STEM MEDIA CAMPAIGN

“We can’t ignore the negative effects of the persistence of gender stereotype…. With fewer female role models in science and math, girls themselves and their few female and many male science teachers perpetuate the cycle of lower self-assessment by girls and women in science across all levels of education.” _ Rosemary O’Keefe (online comment to Wisconsin Women = Prosperity’s Educational Achievement Task Force)

WHY:

Girls’ and young women’s attitudes about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are shaped by distorted, negative images of the types of people who work in those fields – a general perception of unusually intelligent, socially inept, and absent-minded white, male, and ablebodied “geeks” or “nerds”:

• Research with children using the Draw-a-Scientist Test (DAST) documents that the stereotypical image of a white, male, and able-bodied scientist emerges by the second grade and becomes more pronounced as children grow older.¹
  • There is a virtual absence of females and members of racial/ethnic minority groups in students’ drawings of scientists, no matter what grade level.
  • The assumption that scientists are all able-bodied is so established that the studies themselves do not note the absence of persons with disabilities in the students’ depictions.
• Stereotypical images held by undergraduate and graduate students do not differ significantly from those held by younger students, even though these older students have encountered real-life scientists in college.²
• In a recent Harris Poll, 60% of women felt that they were “not very well informed about engineering and engineers.”³
• A longitudinal study conducted for the U.S. Department of Commerce found that only 2% of characters in prime time dramatic television from 1994–1998 were scientists; 75% of the scientists portrayed were white males.⁴

WHAT: Media campaign to encourage girls and women to participate in STEM classes and careers

Targeted interventions do make a difference. Exposing girls and young women to researchers who do not look like the stereotype has been shown to broaden their view of who can be scientists. When asked to draw what a scientist looks like months after such interventions, students portray a more diverse range of people.⁵

A reality-based media campaign – at the local, regional, and state levels (work with your Regional Solutions Network) – can change the future by extending the possibilities of STEM career opportunities to all Wisconsin citizens.

HOW:

• Write a letter to the editor. Include in your opinion editorial information about programs in your community or about a local woman’s or girl’s experience in a STEM class or career. Send the editorial to the Opinion Page editor of local newspapers. You should fax it to one newspaper at a time and make a follow-up call the next day to see if the newspaper intends to place it. Remind them how timely an opinion editorial like this would be (tie it to graduation, Labor Day, students working during the summer, etc.). If they’re not interested, try another newspaper.
• Distribute a story idea memo regarding women and girls in STEM courses and careers to your local press. Print out a story idea memo on a local organization’s letterhead. Fax the story idea memo to as many news outlets as possible. This includes newspapers, local magazines, talk radio, TV stations, and ethnic or specialty newspapers. If your newspaper has a web-based version, you should contact the web version separately. Before faxing the memo, call the news outlet and ask if there is someone assigned to cover economic development. If you are contacting a radio or TV show, ask for the producer of the particular show. Address the fax cover to that person. Always follow-up with a call to make sure the reporter or producer received the memo and to encourage them to do a story or show on the topic.
• Create a Public Service Announcement (PSA). Collaborate with a high school, college, or university business, technology or journalism class to develop and air a PSA highlighting women and girls in STEM courses and careers. Feature local women and girls who are successful in STEM classes and careers.
• Display a positive message on a billboard. Work with a local STEM-related business to develop and fund a billboard that celebrates local women and girls in STEM classes and careers.
• Host a celebration of women and girls in STEM classes and careers. Secure press coverage for a celebration of local women and girls in STEM classes and careers and connect it to graduation, Labor Day, etc.
• Solicit support from local elected officials. Work with staff for local elected officials to issue press releases in support of women and girls in STEM classes and careers. Highlight graduates, recent successes, etc.
• Note: These techniques work for changing attitudes in any area.

¹ See C.R. Barman, “Students’ views of scientists and science: results from a national study,” Science and Children, 35(1) (1997); D.C. Fort and H.L. Varney, “How students see scientists: mostly male, mostly white and mostly benevolent,” Science and Children 26(8) (1989); C.R. Barman, “Completing the study: High school students’ views of scientists and science,” Science and Children 36(7) (1999); J. Rahm and P. Charbonneau, “Probing stereotypes through students’ drawing of scientists,” American Journal of Physics 65(8) (1997); and R. A. Huber and G.M. Burton, “What do students think scientists look like?” School Science and Mathematics 95(7) (1995).
² Ibid.
³ American Association of Engineering Societies, American Perspectives on Engineers and Engineering: a Harris Poll pilot study (Washington, DC: American Association of Engineering Societies, 1998).
⁴ G. Gerbner and B. Linson, Images of Scientists in Prime Time Television: A Report for the U.S. Department of Commerce from the Cultural Indicators Research Project (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1989). Unpublished report.
⁵ R.A. Huber and G.M. Burton, “What do students think scientists look like?” School Science and Mathematics (95)(7) (1995).