Girls do NOT avoid Physics cos the "maths is too hard".
Another post for International Women’s Day - this time on my response two years ago to Katharine Birbalsingh’s (a former government social mobility tsar and current head teacher) assertion that girls avoid physics A-Level because it’s too hard. The truth is far more complicated and nothing to do with inherent difficulty!
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Katharine Birbalsingh said at the session that she'd never looked at A-level choice differences by gender *until the day before* and *had no idea* that so few girls in her school studied physics at A Level. How can she then *possibly know* why girls aren't choosing physics? Doesn't stop her resorting to lazy gender stereotypes though, claiming “they just don’t like it”, or “the maths is too hard”, or “it’s just a natural thing” because girls are more “empathetic”. Listen for yourself in the video below (the video of her comments was compiled by New Scientist).
It cannot be about the difficulty of maths when girls do equally well in maths as boys at both GCSE & A-level & more girls do maths than physics at A-Level (her school 59% maths vs 16% physics girls). The maths in Physics A-Level *cannot* be harder than in Maths A-Level!
It's not about 'empathy' vs 'systematic' differences in girls v boys! First, gendered personality traits are controversial & poorly evidenced (as Profs Susan Michie and Liz Stokoe will tell you). Second, it is inconsistent with many more girls choosing chemistry and maths at A-level.
So what *is* driving it? The Inst of Physics has done decades of detailed work on this. e.g. this report “It’s different for girls”. One key thing is "self-concept" - girls thinking that physics is "for boys".
You can see that it's not innate by fact that girls in single sex schools or where there was a 6th form were *more* likely to choose physics & other countries have *much* higher % of girls doing physics.
The other consistent finding is that girls tend to be less confident in their own abilities than boys & less likely to choose physics even with top grades. Do they question themselves because they feel they don't belong or the curriculum or the exam methods or all three?
Also likely that physics A-level choice in girls is related to careers - that the careers they see with physics/maths degrees are less appealing. While you do need maths to study e.g. Medicine, you don't need physics. See below from the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
This matters because maths and physics education are *highly valued* in the workplace and - relevant to Katherine Birbalsingh - an important way to improve social mobility. AND they are fantastic careers!
Physics tells us about the very stuff of existence and the laws that govern it. The atoms that are my body, my desk, my city, my planet were all once in the centre of a star billions of years ago. The physics for an apple falling also determines the movement of galaxies...
Maths is the language that physics speaks - quantum theory (physics of sub-atomic scales) is all maths & gives some of the most accurate predictions in science - but it's so strange, so marvellous that no one really understands what stuff actually *is* at that scale.
The wonder of physics, the elegance and beauty of mathematics - they are all of our birthrights. Instead of dismissive statements such as "girls just don't like physics" we need to acknoweldge that we are failing them - and us.
Too many brilliant women never get to contribute to science, whether they stop at school, university, or later. I left academia at 21 years old with a 1st in maths & a distinction in Quantum Theory MSc cos I felt I didn't fit - not because I didn't love it. I came back. Most don't.
We should also care by the way about boys who are likely put off English, psychology, languages at A-level, seeing them as "girls subjects". Every time a child hears a casual phrase, or is not encouraged while the other sex is, they are pushed out. We must pull in.
Interesting aside on computer science:
The worst gender split at A-Level here is computer science. Interestingly, in 1960s & 1970s there were many women in computer programming jobs - and percentage of women studying computer science in US was increasing steadily - until 1984.
So what happened? Home computers (PCs) came in and were marketed almost exclusively at *boys*. Over next decades became increasingly seen as a male field and percentage of women studying computer science has stayed really low this NPR podcast epsidode is good on it!
To enroll in HS physics, I had to meet with the counsellor and the principal for their permission. In the end I wore them down since they refused to say the quiet part out loud and I refused to accept their facile counter arguments. The all-boy class groaned when I walked in; there goes the grading curve I heard someone say.
I’m positive there were other girls at school with me and before me who had a mind for it and would have liked to take the class. I wasn’t naturally talented in theoretical science, but figured the challenge would be good for me. While boys were being raised to see the world as theirs, we girls were being raised to fit ourselves into a piece of it. Who knows how advanced our world would be if we opened it up to everyone?
Another story about the problems with education here. Not to diminish the story’s importance, but Sunak’s maths to eighteen also reflects the system’s lack of breadth, when most of the rest of the world are doing maths to eighteen. In fact for at least 50 years to my knowledge. And in fact 6-8 subjects are taken to 18, not the A- level effort you have here. We did an intermediate exam at 15 (3rd year high school) then used O-levels for exam practice in 4th year, I then changed schools where at the new one they used O-levels for exam practice in the penultimate year, followed by matriculation in the final year. Then 5 years at third level. Typically if you were doing science subjects, you did the three chemistry, physics and biology regardless of gender. The system here is a weak education. Anyway happy Women’s Day.