From: Maia Cheli-Colando <maia>
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 20:44:41 -0700

I found Sneed's comment about the childhoods of women scientists interesting. So I conducted an experiment tonight with a sample of one, my six year old daughter Ciara. Tucking her into bed, I asked my daughter to name some scientists. First she listed scientists she knew personally -- a female paleogeologist, then her husband, also a geologist, a wife and husband who are both anatomists, a male geneticist, a female herpetologist, a male biologist and then his wife who is both a biologist and a scientific writer.

I had to remind her of specific books to trigger the names of people whom she hadn't actually met -- it seemed that for her, scientists means folks she knows... but then she started running through the names of the girls and women in /The Sky's the Limit/, in particular the kids, and then the women from Jeannine's /Girls Who Looked Under Rocks/. Perhaps because at least half of the folks she knows are scientists or naturalists, Ciara listed each woman on a first name basis, then added in the last names.

Then I asked her what she would draw if I asked her what a scientist looked like. As close as I can remember them, her exact words are below.

"There would be a person with a white t-shirt and green overalls with lots of pockets. She'd have a mini shovel in one hand, and she'd be out in our backyard with the grey cement and the rocks and all of our trees. I don't know what would be in her other hand... oh, and a pair of clippers. And her hair would be the way it [mine] was a few weeks ago. (Pause) This is in my imagination, and this is me. I don't know what would be in the other pockets..." I suggested she imagine what might be there as she went to sleep, but she said she was going to dream about swim class instead! :)

What else impacts her comfort level? Well, I am on the board at the local Natural History Museum, and she takes classes there several times a month. During the summer we are at the University daily (during the fall-spring, perhaps twice a week), so she sees where I used to work, where I took and taught classes, and knows the different buildings on campus. Our current routine takes us past Botany and the Greenhouse, through Biology and Chemistry/Physics every day. For her, being a scientist is the norm, not the rarity. What will she do when she grows up? I don't know. She's been pretty saturated by music and books too. She says that she will be a garden scientist... but only time will tell.

For my part, I didn't grow up with scientists, and though an early experience with Madeleine L'Engle shaped my desires, it was so much at odds with the messages I received in school that I didn't take science classes until I returned to college in my mid twenties. And even then, the paths to being a mother (which I wanted) and a wife (which I was) and a scientist didn't seem to congeal well. I left the field when I became pregnant, though I have found that it is impossible to really remove myself from the sphere, the interests, and general pursuits. I am hopeful that when Ciara is a woman, it will be easier than it has been on women of my generation with inclinations to both the scientific and maternal.

Maia

Sneed B. Collard III wrote:
Received on Wed 13 Jul 2005 10:44:41 PM CDT