Why do girls think that maths is not for them?

Image from Unsplash.

It is no secret that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a male-dominated field. A research survey conducted by UNESCO in June 2019 suggests that 29.3% of the scientists worldwide are female. And bear in mind that this is an improvement from what the situation used to be.

We all start learning at the same age and go through the same education system. Regardless of our gender identity, we are all taught the same material. Then what goes wrong?

I believe that the problem here is layered. The first factor is the lack of role models. If you are a young girl interested in science, you would naturally want to find someone to look up to. If you identify as female, it is natural that you would feel the stories of other females are more relatable to you. And here we bump into the first problem — except for Marie Curie, which female scientists do we learn about at an early age? If your mum or dad is a mathematician, they may tell you about the genius of Emmy Noether or Ada Lovelace. But in comparison to the flood of male scientists we hear about as children, this seems like a drop in the ocean.

I am a female scientist, or rather, I used to be. I left my research career a couple of years ago, but for entirely different reasons than any of the ones I discuss here. I just fell out of love with it. I…