生是女兒家，免談數(shù)理化？

By Arun Rath

Arun Rath （Hotst）： The vast majority of professional scientists， mathematicians and engineers are men. But why？ More young women than ever are pursuing advanced degrees， but there are still very few female professors of physics， math or engineering. We caught up with some young women at UCLA， all good students who had scored well enough in math to get into UCLA， and asked them why they decided not to study science or math in college.

Minerva Prammo： I was actually really good at science. Before I was an English major， I was a 1）neuroscience major. People were just always， like， asking me， so youre going to be in neuroscience. And I was like， yeah.

Sarah Wally： My names Sarah Wally（ph）. Part of this is that I dont have much of a background in it， and its really hard to get caught up to people who are really good at it and really have the basics down.

Rath： Thats Minerva Prammo（ph） and Sarah Wally. Eileen Pollack wrote about why there are so few women in science in an article for The New York Times. In it， she writes about a 2）fascinating and 3）disturbing study that 4）illustrates one challenge women face.

Eileen Pollack： Jo Handelsman， who is a researcher—shes actually a biologist at Yale—had the sense for years that there was sort of an unconscious gender 5）bias going on that women experience. But she wanted to find hard numbers and actually 6）document this because scientists tend to 7）pride themselves on their 8）objectivity， their 9）rationality. So they didnt believe it in their field. So she came up with an experiment where they basically had made up a job application. And， really， all that was different was on one job application， it seemed to be coming from someone named Jennifer， and on the other from someone named John.

A n d t h e r e s u l t s w e r e 10）astonishing. Jennifer was judged less competent， less 11）hirable and less worthy of 12）mentoring or being encouraged to go on in the field than John， 13）solely on the basis of the name. And it was young women and men in the field doing this， not just the old guys， you know. And I think that was what was 14）startling.

Rath： Well， speaking of which， I mean， you had， with your own career 15）trajectory， you were one of the first women to earn a science degree from Yale. Youve experienced this sort of stuff. I understand before you got to Yale you had to teach yourself 16）calculus？

Pollack： Yeah. I know it sounds like I grew up in the， you know， in 17）Paleolithic times， but it really wasnt that long ago. When I was in 7th grade， we were all given an exam， it was science and math， and the boys who did well were skipped ahead so that when they got to be juniors or seniors in high school they would be able to go to the local community college and take calculus and physics there.

And I wasnt skipped ahead. And the 18）principal said， first of all， that girls never go on in science and math so I would just be wasting a seat， but also that it would ruin my social life.

Rath： So you got yourself your own education. How was it when you got to Yale？

Pollack： Oh， it was a nightmare because， in fact， I had no idea how far behind I was and went to the first physics class， and there were 118 guys and， I think， two of us women in there. I was beyond lost. And just that discomfort of being the only woman in the room. So every time I would cross or uncross my legs， the lecture would almost stop or I would sense my classmates moving. It was so distracting.

Rath： Well， its interesting you write about how women who actually attend all-girl schools tend to do better in this way.

Pollack： I was struck again and again over the years， I was doing interviews and meeting with young women， that if people would say， I dont know what youre talking about， I didnt experience that， my question would be， did you go to an all-girl high school？ And almost always， they would say yes， unless they were from another country， which was the other defense against this.

Rath： So weve talked about a lot of the factors that served to discourage women from pursuing careers in the sciences. How do you think we can encourage them？

Pollack： You know， I think women need to hear more encouragement in any field because I see it—I teach creative writing. And even though its mostly women in the room， theyre not often—or they didnt used to be the ones who went on to publish books. I know this sounds like a 19）teratology， but encouragement is the key. Literally saying to， you know， whether to a 12-year-old or an 18-year-old or a 25-year-old， you know， you can do this.

Rath： Eileen Pollack teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Michigan. Shes working on a book about women in science and engineering. Eileen， thank you.

Pollack： Thanks so much.

阿倫·拉特（主持人）：這世界上的專業(yè)科學家、數(shù)學家、工程師里面，絕大部分是男性。這是什么原因呢？雖說越來越多的女孩子已攻入高學歷層次，但在物理、數(shù)學、工程這些學科里，女教授還是鮮見的。我們今天請來加州大學洛杉磯分校（以下簡稱UCLA）的幾位女學生來一起聊聊這個話題。她們都是數(shù)學考高分而被錄取進入UCLA的，但為什么大學選科的時候她們都不選數(shù)理學科為自己的主修呢？

民諾瓦·普拉姆：我以前理科還是學得挺不錯的。在轉(zhuǎn)向主修英語之前，我曾經(jīng)是神經(jīng)科學專業(yè)的學生。那時候，大家老愛對我說，你以后是要在神經(jīng)科學這學科一直混下去的吧。我也應(yīng)聲答道，是吧。

莎拉·瓦利：我名叫莎拉·瓦利。之所以不挑數(shù)理學科，部分是因為自己基礎(chǔ)不好，比起那些擅長數(shù)理化，有扎實根基的同學，我覺得自己是很難追趕上來的。拉特：前面聽到的是民諾瓦·普拉姆和莎拉·瓦利的心聲。艾琳·波拉克為《紐約時報》撰寫過一篇文章，分析了理科界少有女生的原因。文章中，她提到一個很有意思但又令人心生不安的研究，揭示了女性所面對的一大挑戰(zhàn)。

艾琳·波拉克：喬·漢德爾斯曼是一名研究人員、耶魯大學的生物學家，多年來她覺得女性在理科世界闖蕩時一直存在著某種潛意識的性別偏見。她希望以確鑿的數(shù)據(jù)證明并記錄下這一觀點，畢竟，科學家最是講求客觀理性的。一開始，她的同行對她的看法不以為然。因此，她想出了一個實驗，編造出一份個人簡歷，然后將其復制生成另一份簡歷，唯一不同的只是名字，假造出兩名求職者，一人名為珍妮弗，一人名為約翰。而結(jié)果是驚人的，單單看兩人的名字，相比約翰，人們會認為珍妮弗的能力和可雇用度較低，不太值得進一步培養(yǎng)，或者不太值得鼓勵往這一領(lǐng)域發(fā)展。作出這種判斷的正是理科領(lǐng)域里的年輕男女，不僅僅是上了年紀的人是這樣想。我覺得那是很令人震驚的。拉特：嗯，說起來，回顧你的事業(yè)發(fā)展歷程，我們知道你是取得耶魯大學理科學位的最初一批女生之一，這類偏見肯定也是經(jīng)歷過的。聽說在入讀耶魯之前，你得自學微積分，是嗎？波拉克：是的。我知道，雖然聽起來我像個舊石器時代的老古董了，但求學時代其實也不是那么遙遠的事情。讀七年級的時候，我們所有人都要參加一次數(shù)理科目的考試，成績好的男孩子可以進入快班，所以到了高中二年級三年級的時候，他們輕而易舉地便可以升讀本地社區(qū)大學，修讀微積分及物理這些專業(yè)。

而我是沒考進快班的。校長說，首先，女孩子從來不會在數(shù)理化這方面發(fā)展的，我要讀也是浪費了學位，而且，那會毀掉我的社交生活。

拉特：所以你就選擇自學了。那進入耶魯之后又是怎樣呢？

波拉克：噢，那簡直就是個噩夢，因為我去上第一堂物理課的時候，根本沒想過原來自己程度是那么的差，而且，讀這門課程的有118名男生，女生就只有兩名。我整個人都懵了。作為絕無僅有的女生坐在那課室里，光是那種感覺就夠難受的。所以每次上課，我的腿就不知該怎么放好，翹也不是，不翹也不是，老師的講課似乎完全停頓了，有時候我會分神感覺同學們的動靜。反正就是不能專下心來。

拉特：嗯，很有趣的是，你寫到，從女校畢業(yè)進入大學的女性在同樣情形下反而會表現(xiàn)更加出色。

波拉克：這些年我一次又一次被震撼，當我在做訪問調(diào)查跟一些青年女性聊起這個話題，如果她們表示，“我不懂你在說什么，我沒感覺有那么不安”，那我會問她們高中是不是讀女校的，結(jié)果幾乎都是肯定的，除非她們是來自別的國家，在這問題上那就另當別論了。

拉特：我們談?wù)撨^了令女性放棄理科事業(yè)發(fā)展的好一些因素。那你覺得我們應(yīng)該怎樣鼓勵她們反其道而行呢？

波拉特：你知道吧，我認為無論在哪個領(lǐng)域的發(fā)展，女性都應(yīng)該聽到更多的鼓勵聲音，這是我眼見的一個現(xiàn)實。我教的是創(chuàng)意寫作這門課，雖然課室里大部分是女生，但最后她們能走到出版作品這一步的不多，或者說一直以來，能成功出版自己作品的不太會是這么些女性。我知道這聽起來好像挺怪誕的，但鼓勵的確是關(guān)鍵。很直白地說，無論是12歲、18歲還是25歲的女性，我們都要鼓舞她，跟她說，“你是行的”。

拉特：艾琳·波拉克在密歇根大學教授創(chuàng)意寫作課程。她正在寫一本以女性在理工界打滾為主題的書。艾琳，謝謝你來到我們的節(jié)目。

波拉克：非常感謝。