They are students, doctoral candidates, popularizers and professors, in computer science, biology, engineering or astrophysics… For the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, five experts describe the place of women in a scientific world still too kind. They encourage young girls to discover science.
« In high school, my physics teacher told me: “Anyway, I never give girls more than 15/20“ “, recalls half-fig half-grape Maud Marchal, 41 years old. Without letting herself be defeated by the violence of her words, the young high school student works hard. ” I found that extremely hurtful. Me, it motivated me to show him the opposite. But I’m not sure everyone reacts the same way. » Now a professor of computer science at Insa in Rennes, and specialized in hapticsshe discovers, appalled, the latest studies on the choice of the mathematics option in high school.
Already the situation is not looking good, Maud Marchal fears that the trend will worsen. ” We are worried, because we will recover these high school students in one or two years and that we will have fewer girls, clearly, and even more when we do computer science : we are already only 10% “, she regrets.
A real challenge for science
For Tania Louis, 32, science popularizer and former researcher in molecular virology, the overrepresentation of one sex in a scientific field is never a good thing, for two reasons: “ The first is that it is foolish to deprive yourself of the skills of half of humanity. To reduce the presence of a genre is necessarily to deprive oneself of talent. And the second is that scientists are human beings and they approach the way they work through the prism of their own experience: a science mainly done by men is a biased science. »
And examples of gender bias in science abound. In archeology, work has shown that many skeletons and human remains were interpreted as male, because they were accompanied by certain attributes, before realizing in the followingmath that they were women.
Even in biology, a field that is reputed to be more feminine than the others, the doses of drugs are selected on samples from men or the preliminary tests are carried out on male mice. However, with more women in the teams, who do not necessarily have the same biases as men, it would be possible to limit some of the biases in the research results.
Lack of models
Very early on, girls learn to distance themselves from scientific fields. Maud Marchal lived it in high schools, colleges and even schools. ” From primary school, we see the dichotomy between those who are going to do programming: the boys come and the girls step aside. There is an ingrained culture that perhaps stems from upbringing, which makes girls feel illegitimate right away », Supports the professor of computer science.
The thing that irritates me during the day of girls and women in science is that institutions/foundations/… only highlight women scientists who have won prizes. We don’t all get a prize and yet we are also women scientists…
— Dr. Alexandra Gros ⚛ ???? ???? (@alexandra_gros) February 11, 2022
One concern is the lack of female role models that girls can relate to, although some emerge during student life, such as teachers. Not to mention that the sciences are reputed to be difficult. If models can be used to encourage girls to discover science, they must not become a brake. Tania Louis insists: “ You don’t need to be Marie Curie to do science. I still somewhat regret having set out on a research course with a thesis and having ended up leaving research when, if it happens, if I had done a BTS and had worked as a technician in a laboratory, I would have been much more fulfilled. »
Underrepresented in the sciences, when choosing their orientation, young women then prefer to go on more literary careers. Whitney Jerosme, 23, popularizer of aeronautics on Twitch and student in second year of mechanical engineering at the faculty, followed three years of English license, before having a click: ” Going to a conference of an astrophysicist, the light came on, I realized that I really wanted to work in space. And that’s how I started to consider my reorientation as I went along. »
Everyday sexism
The problem is that sexism is not limited to the proportion of women in science. Phenomena more common to the rest of society can take, in the case of science, an ubiquitous dimension. A doctoral student in astrophysics, Mathilde Gaudel had her own area of expertise explained to her by a man who knew nothing regarding it. She also denounces those who consider that it is parity, and not a woman’s intelligence, that allows her to reach certain positions of responsibility: ” There are people who believe that it’s because you’re a girl that you succeed, I find that super violent. “It’s not because she worked hard, it’s because she’s a girl“. There is a negation of all your work, of your intelligence. »
On her Twitch channel, Whitney Jerosme is regularly referred to her status as a woman. A credible woman to talk regarding astronautical mechanics, it’s already hard to swallow for some… So, if in addition she is a student, it’s double trouble: ” It is very difficult to find me credible, because I am a student, whereas to prepare my streams on space, I work a lot on technical subjects. However, it’s my area of expertise, I do mechanics, it’s engineering. »
Men-friendly careers
Being a woman in science also means making sacrifices. In research, the thirties are the time when a woman can hope to obtain permanent positions, become lecturer. But it is also the moment when societal constraints weigh the most on his shoulders. ” A woman who arrives at a prestigious scientific position has given her all, and I also think that she is even more competent than a man. Because the path a woman had to take compared to a man is twice as perilous to reach the same level Mathilde Gaudel sums it up.
Recruiters can avoid hiring a woman, because she risks having a child, taking care of it more than a man, being more solicited by her family… so many sociological biases that might be partly erased by forcing men to invest more in the family. Aurore Grandin, 27 years old and a doctoral student in cognitive sciences at the École Normale Supérieure, nevertheless wishes to qualify: There can be implicit biases in the way jurors judge candidates: there are plenty of studies, in psychology, in social cognition, which show that even people who are not prejudiced explicit and conscious, can be influenced. »
Once you get to the right position, it doesn’t get any easier. As there are few women in these prestigious positions, they are much more solicited in the juries, in the authorities, to respect parity. They therefore multiply the hats, at the risk of being overloaded with additional tasks, of no longer being able to concentrate on research and therefore of being less present in scientific publication.
An overmediatization of men?
This overload thus contributes to the invisibilization of women scientists in the media. Women are less sought following. And when they are, via Experts’ website, for example, they do not always have time to respond, like some of their colleagues. Some speak of a self-censorship of women, who would not like to speak in the media for fear of being illegitimate. Nevertheless, for Tania Louis, the question should not be asked in this sense. ” In fact, I think it’s not a lack of confidence from women, but an overconfidence from men. I think it would be more interesting to consider turning the question in that direction, instead of wondering why women censor themselves, wondering why men accept invitations when they have nothing interesting to say. »
While waiting for a real national debate, each of the experts interviewed tries to motivate young girls, high school girls, students, to go to science. By occupying the ground on the networks despite unpleasant remarks, Whitney Jerosme also hopes that her reorientation will serve young girls: some dreams do not deserve to be sacrificed on the altar of sexism.
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