By Sheeva Azma

.@SheevaAzma: “Though I am a person who does science – a scientist – I don’t consider myself to fit the scientist ”stereotype.'”

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Being a woman in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) can be frustrating, to say the least. It’s annoying to have to prove yourself over and over again, doubt yourself, and watch your role models struggle to overcome the same barriers.

I spent 10 years doing science research. Eventually, I left science to become a freelance science writer and eventually start Fancy Comma. People are surprised to learn that I graduated from MIT – the top science and engineering university in the world – and that I have a Master’s degree in neuroscience from Georgetown. 

Though I am a person who does science – a scientist – I don’t consider myself to fit the scientist “stereotype.” You know what I’m talking about – an old white guy with disheveled hair and a lab coat that spends all day in the lab and has no life. That’s not me, and, for the record, I don’t know any scientists like that!

That’s not to say that I don’t love science and STEM in general – as of writing this, I’m still working on publishing the research I did in grad school, and it’s been my life’s work to get more young people interested in STEM. Throughout my science career, I prioritized teaching students on the K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels alongside my research. 

I have learned that stereotypes make the challenge of teaching STEM even more difficult.

Stereotypes Keep People out of STEM

When it comes to math, I’m good at it, but would not consider myself a stereotypical “math nerd” in the least – though I’m good at math and even used to take home math problems to do when I was in third grade. 

As mathematics PhD student Simone Ramello has written, stereotypes harm math education by making educational disparities worse. People who don’t fit the stereotypes – internalized from society and independent of actual ability – feel like outsiders. Those students are less likely to pursue STEM, which can be a really useful and lucrative area of focus. The cycle of marginalization continues, serving to just make the stereotype seem more true.

Ramello argues that math educators must “change the narrative.” Out with the idea that people who brag about knowing math are somehow better than everyone, which reinforces the idea that only certain people can excel at math. In with the actual truth – that everyone can learn math, regardless of who they are, their background, or whether they look like a stereotypical “math nerd.”

The Challenge of “Stereotype Threat” in STEM

I love STEM because it’s literally life-saving to be able to understand the laws of physics driving down an icy road, or to be able to create a budget. I do my own taxes because I love math so much, though my freelance writer colleagues brag about getting an accountant.

I have to admit that seeing Greek letters in equations sometimes gives me anxiety, though – how did I get through two years of engineering courses at MIT? In case you did not know, pretty much every course I took at MIT has some element of math in it. It felt like my professors crammed math into basically every class I took, even life science courses like biology and chemistry, which you probably don’t normally associate with math.

As a neuroscientist by training, I have learned about how the mind works when it comes to stereotypes surrounding math.

My anxiety surrounding Greek letters is part of what’s known as “stereotype threat” – the idea that I, as a woman, am not good at math. So, when I see a concept that looks daunting, I become anxious, fearful that I can’t do math because I am not a stereotypical mathematician type. My solution has always to be to think about my math skills and remind myself that I have taken years and years of math, and that I can solve anything I put my mind to. It’s not always easy to get into this “math-solving” mindset, and I wonder to what extent society’s images of women have contributed to this.

I should note here that effective math communication is a huge part of getting past stereotype threat. With math comms strategies, educators can apply tried-and-true communications strategies to help people understand math without all of the baggage. For more information on math communication, check out Suzza Silver’s blog post with tons of links and resources.

7 Ways Teachers can Break STEM Stereotypes

There’s some good news here amidst all the psychological baggage associated with learning STEM: in the past 20 years since I graduated from college, I do see more representation of women and marginalized groups. For example, I love the cartoon Moon Girl and the Devil Dinosaur because I find its protagonist – the smartest character in the Marvel cinematic universe – is totally relatable.

Also, psychology researchers have figured out ways to break through stereotype threat so that it doesn’t harm students!

A few of these ways include:

1. Conveying that diversity is valued 
2. Valuing aspects of students’ individual identities
3. Helping students manage and reduce their feelings of stress and anxiety surrounding a subject
4. Establishing standards and reiterating confidence that students can meet them
5. Promoting the idea that academic ability can be learned over time (the idea of a “growth mindset”) 
6. Helping students feel like they belong
7. Looking to diverse role models 

Yes, even seemingly little things like having role models that you can relate to can go a long way in reducing stereotype threat and help students learn better. Maybe even just making a list of mathematicians, engineers, and scientists that one looks up to can help students feel like they belong in STEM. That includes women mathematicians like Kathryn Johnson (whose life was the focus of the movie Hidden Figures along with two other Black women mathematicians); Maryam Mirzakhani; Mary Golda Ross, and even people like TV actress Danica McKellar, who has written her own series of math education books.

“Why is all of this important?” you may ask.

Beyond helping ensure that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in STEM, it has a huge impact on our society. That’s because advances in STEM are influenced by the people who make them. Perhaps because science is heavily white and male, 95% of the subjects in clinical trials in the United States are heavily white and male…even though over half the US is female, according to Statista, and 40% of people in the US belong to a racial or ethnic minority, according to Scientific American. 

The Bottom Line

Anyone can learn and excel in STEM fields, regardless of who they are. Just because you don’t understand a subject, that doesn’t mean you are bad at it. Different people learn differently so what works for some students in your classes might not work for you. It’s good to be persistent, ask questions, and never give up.

By being aware of biases in STEM education, we can start to move past them. In combating stereotype threat, teachers and tutors not only help individual students succeed – they also make society and science be better able to interface to solve the world’s challenges.