Don’t believe women are better at science?
For centuries, Women have been contributing to science. The first computer program was written by Ada Lovelace in the 1840s. Hedy Lamarr co-invented the spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology in the 1940s, which nowadays is used in WiFi and GPS. Rosalind Franklin was the first woman to see the double helix shape of DNA in the 1950s. It would be not wrong to say that without the work of mathematicians such as Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson, we would have never been able to make it to the moon.
Despite women’s contributions to science and technology, they have seldom been recognized for their efforts. Only now are we beginning to celebrate the work of many pioneering women researchers. It is important to both look back at the women who have paved the way and to inspire the scientists of the future.
Here are 6 reasons that explain why women are better at science.
Apt to plan ahead, set goals and then achieve those goals
Gwen Kenney-Benson, a psychology professor at Allegheny College, a liberal arts institution in Pennsylvania, said that women succeed over men in school and college in science because they tend to be more mastery-oriented in their working habits. They are more apt to plan ahead, set academic goals, and put effort into achieving those goals. He also added that women also are more likely than men to feel intrinsically satisfied with the whole enterprise of organizing their work, and more invested in impressing themselves and others with their efforts.
Women are curious
What can be better to be able to satisfy your own curiosity on a daily basis? Being a scientist allows women to discover how things work and to answer the question that they are curious about by designing experiments to tease apart the underlying mechanisms. It also gives them the opportunity to work with many young talents who share the same passion with them. Women just love figuring things out like why a particular pattern occurs, or how a mechanism works. Being curious they love digging up things. Women love the independence in their work, and being able to brainstorm new ideas and then make them happen.
They love learning new things
Learning in order to understand the natural world. There is so much that the world doesn’t know about the ocean, but that’s the fact we need the ocean to live. There is so much mystery and allure and with every answer we get there are a thousand more questions, more discoveries to be made said Vanessa Fladmark an ocean researcher.
Learning new things has always been empowering for women. It is not always about the subject or topic, it is about the way it expands their worldview and provides them with new ideas. Learning something new forces women to keep their minds active and pushes them to try new things. Learning something new is not only educational for them, but it has improved everything from confidence and creativity to mental health and life satisfaction, evidently, women are better at science.
Women are creative
Creativity is unavoidable and essential in today’s society and it is often seen as something that cannot be taught by someone. It’s something that people are born with, and it’s in their genes. However, research has shown that women are more keen on learning science and that has an impact on creativity. The more women learn science the more creative they become. Creativity can be boosted by learning new skills, having access to different perspectives, taking risks, understanding how your brain works for you instead of against you, and performing different research and designing different experiments. One’s creativity can be sharpened by all the new, unfamiliar sights and sounds that surround them while they observe things.
Science opens up new career opportunities for them
The growing need for research workers and scientists has opened new doors for women to step forward and pursue their dreams. Manpower shortages have been tight enough for women’s arrival to be greeted with enthusiasm. Surveys suggested that the American population is doubling every fifty years, the need for skilled workers is doubling every twenty years, and the need for highly trained scientists and engineers is doubling every ten years which compels women to move forward and show interest in science and be keen learners.
Women scientists that are working in colleges and universities have a double opportunity: that of pursuing their own research as well as of capturing the imagination of the next generation and attracting it into their specialty.
They love problem-solving
It is known to everybody that a problem can’t be solved if it isn’t understood. It is only possible to solve the problem by gathering information about the problem. That’s why the term “research” is properly applied here. Amanda Giang, Assistant Professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC says that she loves being a scientist because she gets to follow her curiosity. Amanda further added that she loves science because she feels it’s a way in which she can contribute to confronting pressing global challenges, such as the climate crisis, air pollution, and improving health and well-being for all people. Additionally, science is social, and being a scientist lets her work with amazing and passionate thinkers like students in their classrooms and laboratories, other scientists at UBC and around the world, policy-makers, practitioners, and knowledge holders from frontline communities. That’s how women are better at science.