NOT SO FAST! Following Your Passion is the ONLY WAY to Close the Gender Gap in STEM/STEAM!
Over the past couple of weeks much attention has been paid to a recently-published paper containing data that seems to show that encouraging our young people to follow their passions rather than encouraging them to follow the money is creating a gender disparity in STEM/STEAM education and careers.
This lit me up!
As an extremely passionate advocate for increasing the number of girls and women in STEM/STEAM education and careers, this goes against everything that I believe and in fact against my primary message that I pass on to anyone who will listen.
If we want to include more girls in STEM/STEAM then we need to stop asking them if they are good at math. Instead we need to ask them about their passions and then teach them how the practical application of science, technology, engineering math and, yes, even the arts, can help them solve the problems that they are interested in.
My first reaction was to spit out an angry contradiction to the stories that I was reading, seeing on-line and in the news, stories that were reporting a headline in order to get views with no clear analysis of what was actually in the study itself. Then I counted to 10, chose to review the study myself and determine what the real story was that needed to be told.
The paper was published by the American Psychological Association in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes and titled “Does the Follow-Your-Passions Ideology Cause Greater Greater Academic and Gender Disparities Than Other Cultural Ideologies?”.
Phew. That is a mouthful.
What the headlines read were “‘Follow Your Passion’ Advice Keeps Women from STEM Fields’ Says Research” and “‘Follow Your Passions’ Advice Limits Women in STEM Fields, Study Shows”.
What they should have said is “Outdated Gender Stereotypes from Our Grandmothers’ Era Keeping our Daughters from Excelling in STEM/STEAM Education and Careers”.
At the outset, the purpose of the study seemed valiant. “Understanding factors that contribute to gender disparities is important because many women are missing out on some of the most lucrative and prestigious fields in the United States.”
Amen to that.
“Moreover, society is missing contributions from talented women.”
Indeed. Maybe a little understated, but indeed.
The Follow-Your Passions Ideology is described as “the idea that one’s strong interests, preferences, and positive feelings should determine their academia and occupational choices.”
Sounds about right to me.
The Resources Ideology, on the other hand is the “belief that one should choose a major or occupation that will provide high income and job security.”
That also seems to make good sense to me and at this point I started wondering why one couldn’t do what one was passionate about and simultaneously make a high salary and have job security.
The authors of the study would like you to believe “that the follow-your-passions ideology causes women to draw upon female role-congruent selves, or aspects of themselves (e.g., interests, traits) that are congruent with the female gender role, to a greater extent than the resources ideology.”
Huh?
Further, they assert that “the female gender role in the United States prescribes stereotypically feminine characteristics (e.g., cooperative) and interests (e.g., working with people) as well as taking on communal roles (e.g., being the primary caregiver). In contrast, the male gender role prescribes stereotypically masculine characteristics (e.g., competitive) and interests (e.g., financial rewards) as well as taking on agentic roles (e.g., being the primary breadwinner).
First of all, I see being cooperative, working with people and enjoying communal roles as a plus on any work team – especially a STEM/STEAM team where you will be in the minority with that skill set. And second, am I reading a study from the 50s or 60s?!
Are you counting to 10 now yourself?
It continues “We define gender role-congruent selves as aspects of one’s self concepts that are consistent with one’s gender role.”
So our gender-role congruent selves are buying into the stereotypical self concept of gender roles that we have been trying to break free from for decades?
Continuing again, “People in majority-male fields are stereotyped as working independently, having a singular focus on technology, being socially unskilled and being brilliant. The perceived mismatch between female role-congruent selves and stereotypes of majority-males fields may decrease intentions to pursue these fields.”
How about filling the roles in majority-male fields with women who can break the stereotypes and become role models for the young ladies that follow? Maybe something like what I and thousands of others like me have dedicated our careers to for decades?
And am I the only one who is offended by “brilliance” being described as a male gender role-congruent characteristic?
In one portion of the study, the only career option was engineering, typically recognized to be the most majority-male STEM/STEAM career. In the follow-your-passion portion, participants were told “Imagine you followed the advice to follow your passions and do what you love. Based on following the advice above how interested would you be in pursuing a career in engineering?” Scores ranged from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very). In the resource portion, participants were told “Imagine you followed the advice to do what is practical.” And then asked the same question as above with the same scoring.
As was hypothesized, there was a greater gender disparity when the question was asked in the follow-your-passion ideology versus the resource ideology and similar results were obtained in another portion of the study when engineering was expanded to include engineering, computer science and physics.
Again, I ask, why must these two ideas be mutually exclusive? Why is it not possible to follow your passion and have a successful and high paying career?
I am here to tell you that it is absolutely possible and not only possible, but a must for the young women entering these male-dominated STEM/STEAM pathways. If you are not passionate about what you are doing how are you going to withstand the stress and burnout that 32% of women in STEM say are making them consider leaving the workforce immediately? If you are not passionate about what you are doing how are you going to withstand seeing others be promoted around you like 29% of women in STEM report experiencing? How are you going to continue to come to work when you feel that your male colleagues are valued more than you are as 70% of women in STEM also report experiencing?
There were only three STEM/STEAM academic or career pathways that were specifically part of the study and yet the results were extrapolated to encompass all STEM/STEAM fields. The drum beat was sounded that we should no longer encourage our young people to follow their hearts but to follow the money.
There is a high price to be paid if you follow the money and not your passion.
Did you know that being a pastry chef is a STEM/STEAM career?
Did you know that being a golf course designer is a STEM/STEAM career?
Did you know that being a video game designer is a STEM/STEAM career?
Did you know that being a drone pilot is a STEM/STEAM career?
The list goes on and on and on… what are you interested in?…
What, if anything, this study says about the gender gap in STEM/STEAM is that we need to get rid of all of the stereotypes, both male and female, and we need to embrace what each of us as individuals, not males or females, bring to the table.
We need to start the conversations about passions and interests and dreams with our young people at a very early age, give them role models so that they can see themselves doing amazing things, and provide them with opportunities to explore their imaginations!
I could not disagree more with this study and I believe that the way that its message has been trumpeted, without the complete context behind the headlines, is detrimental to us all and especially young women.
In order to include more girls and young women in STEM/STEAM we need to stop asking them if they are good at math. We MUST remind them to follow their passion, not discourage them from it.