{"id":40573,"date":"2017-09-18T13:55:36","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T20:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=40573"},"modified":"2017-09-18T13:55:36","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T20:55:36","slug":"explaining-women-arent-physicists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/explaining-women-arent-physicists\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cExplaining\u201d Why women aren\u2019t physicists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Why are women and girls still so underrepresented in the study and teaching of STEM disciplines?\u00a0 The question has received a good deal of attention recently, as it should, and one common conclusion is that sexist attitudes and practices, including blatant sexual harassment and discrimination, remain far too common and are often ignored.\u00a0 See, for example, the article \u201cHow Women Are Harassed Out of Science<\/a>,\u201d published in The Atlantic <\/em>last year.\u00a0 Or \u201cShe Wanted to Do Her Research. He Wanted to Talk \u2018Feelings.<\/a>\u201d in the New York Times<\/em>.\u00a0 Or literally dozens of other treatments of the subject \u2014 just Google \u201csexism in STEM.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now researchers from Abertay University in Scotland and the University of New South Wales in Canberra have come up with a novel \u2014 if pretty far-fetched \u2014 \u201cexplanation\u201d for the gender disparity in the field of Physics.\u00a0 They claim that \u201cboys are better at Physics because they learn about \u2018projection\u2019 while going to the toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is how this remarkable discovery was described in the education section of The Telegraph<\/em><\/a>:\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

From a young age, boys are taught about how to aim accurately so that they do not make a mess in the bathroom, and this gives them a better understanding of \u201cprojectile motion\u201d, according to three academics. . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPlayful urination practices \u2013 from seeing how high you can pee to games such as Peeball (where men compete using their urine to destroy a ball placed in a urinal) \u2013 may give boys an advantage over girls when it comes to physics,\u201d the academics wrote.<\/em><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he researchers said they have examined gender differences in achievement on physics tests, and found that girls generally perform worse than boys, but with a more marked gap in specific topic areas.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, the largest gaps in performance between girls and boys arise in questions that involve projectile motion \u2013 things that have been thrown, kicked, fired, etc,\u201d they said. . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

T<\/span>hey said this is significant, since the physics curriculum often uses projectile motion as the starting point for more sophisticated mechanics concepts such as force, energy and momentum.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is even done because it is assumed to be more familiar, and hence easier to relate to,\u201d they said.<\/em><\/p>\n

The researchers concluded that there is \u201cno simple way\u201d to provide girls with the same opportunities for exploring projectile motion that boys have.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m no physicist and I\u2019m not much of an expert on gender roles, nor have I ever played (or even heard of) \u201cPeeball,\u201d but I do have many decades experience in male rest rooms.\u00a0 To say I\u2019m not convinced would be quite the understatement.\u00a0 Is this also supposed to explain why girls may, well, throw a baseball \u201clike a girl\u201d (as do some boys, of course)?\u00a0 I actually did pretty well in Physics in high school, but I always thought it had something to do with my similar ability in Math (long since lost, however) and not in urination.\u00a0 And what\u2019ll it be next?\u00a0 Girls are better than boys at interpreting literature because they have more time to sit on the toilet and read?<\/p>\n

I will assume that the authors of the study had only the best of motives, hoping to make elementary physics education more friendly to girls.\u00a0 But I doubt this is what those complicit in the very real sex discrimination and harassment at all levels in STEM will make of it.\u00a0 For them, it\u2019ll probably give a whole new life and meaning to the long-discredited Freudian trope of \u201cpenis envy<\/a>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why are women and girls still so underrepresented in the study and teaching of STEM disciplines?\u00a0 The question has received a good deal of attention recently, as it should, and one common conclusion is that sexist attitudes and practices, including blatant sexual harassment and discrimination, remain far too common and are often ignored.\u00a0 See, for […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":40574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[136882],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-40573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-gender-roles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cExplaining\u201d Why women aren\u2019t physicists - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/explaining-women-arent-physicists\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cExplaining\u201d Why women aren\u2019t physicists - 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