I want to be an astronaut AND a princess too!
“Forget Princess-I want to be an astronaut”, says a text in a t-shirt. The t-shirt is obviously aimed for little girls, or more so: to their parents, who want their girls to be “something big” when they grow up: like astronauts, doctors, professors, engineers etc. For being something like that, girls should forget all the princess stuff. Or do they? Will we get girls more interested in STEM (science-technology- engineering- mathematics) by encouraging them to forget everything that is connected to “typical girly-glittery-pinky-fluffy” stuff?
No, is my opinion! I am a mom of a boy and a girl. When my kids were young, they preferred to play typical girls’ or boys’ plays. The girl preferred to play with dolls- specially princess dolls. The boy preferred to play with cars. Of course we parents tried to encourage the girl to play also with cars and the boy to play with princess dolls, but they had a different preferences. Both of my kids are now teenagers, and guess what is the dream job of the former princess girl! She wants to be a physicist, and she wants to focus on particle physics. Last week she visited Cern. It was her dream come true!
Even thought I bought the girl princess-pinky-glittery stuff and had a princess parties with her, we parents (both engineers as education), encouraged the kids to like mathematics, physics and chemistry. For example: “mathematics is solving problems. Solving problems is interesting. Maths is not difficult subject. It is interesting subject and you can do maths as well as anyone can.” That is also what my father (an engineer) told to me when I was a little girl born in 1970's. That is why I never learned to be scared of STEM.
As a futurist, I think that technology has so important role in the future that we just cannot allow men to design all the tech gadgets and solutions. We need more girls/women in STEM areas. It is the attitude of the parents and teachers that encourage girls to be interested in STEM.
What do I do now to encourage other girls to study STEM? I have started a project Science for Girls (in Finland), that encourages girls at young age to get interested in STEM. Currently I am also cowriting a children’s book about brave girls that who like study the nature. One of the girl is — surprise, surprise- a princess. I am cowriting the book with my friend Minna Palmroth, a woman, who is a professor of physics and specialized in space weather.
In my opinion young girls need to have also girly- pinky- glittery role models to encourage them to be interested in STEM. An astronaut princess can be such a role model.
Are you interested about my ideas? If so, you could book my webinar lectures and key-note speeches via my web page www.elinahiltunen.com
