Helaina-
Excellent article with a fresh perspective about why the male/female ratio is so high in physics courses. Enjoyable read!

I earned a BSME from Purdue 25 years ago, and my graduating class was less than 10% female. Mechanical engineering is basically an applied physics degree. A quarter century later, the percentage hasn’t increased all that much at Purdue (and most other engineering schools), despite the efforts of high schools, universities, and industry.

It always did seem a little strange to me that 2 disciplines that are generally viewed as equally difficult (like physics and chemistry) have very different male/female splits at most universities. I would bet that there’s a much higher percentage of women in an organic chemistry class vs. any type of a higher-level physics course. Also, there are LOTS women in chemical and electrical engineering, and almost none in mechanical and civil engineering.

Most people talking or writing about the reasons for low female enrollment in hard sciences and engineering focus on influence of society at the macro level (media, advertising, etc) and the micro level (peer pressure, courses available, opinion of students, teachers, and administrators toward “smart” kids, both male and female). I think those things do have significant bearing on the # of women enrolled in a physics II course. I could go on and on about the micro-level issues at Solon, but that would be way off topic.

But your idea that part of the issue is the way the subject is TAUGHT is really interesting. Focusing on creativity, design, and art in designing projects and curriculum is an awesome idea! I would suggest asking girls in physics courses what they do for fun and what kind of things they are into. Ask girls and boys in Physics I and higher level math courses if they are considering more physics courses in high school. Ask why or why not. Heck, you’ve probably already done that.

Physics is inherent in everything, and pointing that out may engage the girls more. For example, my daughter is a competitive gymnast. There’s LOTS of Newton’s laws and kinematics to explore there. And in a hyper-sports focused school like Solon, a student that understands things like inertia, cetripetal motion, and friction coefficents can use that stuff to become a better athlete. Going to the weight room to learn about leverage and the physics definition of work would be pretty cool. Just don’t go when there’s a bunch of sweaty and swaggering football players in there. Another idea- there’s physics involved every time we drive a car. Why does a car do what it does when you corner at high speeds or hit the brakes on black ice? (Not recommended for classroom experiment with real cars, though! ) Have students change a tire (not a bad thing to know how to do) and learn about and see the difference tire tread makes. You do not have to be able to bench 2x your body weight to change a tire. Talk about the design of the car and the jack and things like why bracing the opposite tire is a good thing to do. My dad made practice changing a tire before I got my first license. I’m glad I did, because I had to change a few tires under less-than-optimal conditions on the shoulders of busy interstates in Ohio and Michigan. Oops…I digress.

Well, when I read what I just wrote, it all looks pretty male-centric. Maybe I’ve just marinated in the sauce too long and can’t think outside the box that I learned in. So I will try again. How about a study of Leonardo Davinci and how his knowledge of physics informed his inventions and his architecture? Look at the design of shoes, especially heels. Why do they hurt when you wear them? Women know, but the guys may be clueless. Look at the angle of the foot in the shoe at different heel heights, how if affects the way you walk and the angle of your legs when standing and walking, the fact that weight is concentrated vs. spread out over the total foot area. Also the difference between shoes that have more (chunky heels) or less (stilettos) contact area with the ground. In early airplanes, women with heels would supposedly poke holes in the floor with their skinny heels. It had nothing do with their weight and everything to do with the high pressure exerted at the heel of the shoe. Anyway, these ideas could be way out of bounds for the course ideas, but I sure had fun thinking about them!

For more kids (not just females), the attitude of teachers and administrators has to change. Don’t hold a kid back automatically because she (or he) is not “old enough” or “sophomores can’t take that class”, even if he/she has the prerequisites. If a kid is truly interested in learning and wants to explore a subject, schools (administrators, counselors, and/or local boards of education) need to get out of the way and avoid stifling the kid and the teachers that support them. Admission to a class shouldn’t be automatically denied on the basis of prereqs or grade level. Even though prerequisites are in place for a good reason (know the material that underlies the course) there should be leeway in the system to allow some instances where the teacher lets the student take the classes concurrently or waives the prereq, based on teacher/student assessments.

Again, great article, and I look forward to reading more of your posts.

Have you done the research on how the gender gap changes within certain sciences in college and beyond? Just from personal experience, many of the females that studied physics for undergrad with me went on to graduate degrees in other sciences (chemistry, geology, biophysics, sociology)

Thank you, Helaina!