雙語揭祕:爲什麼女性不願進入科技領域

Peter Ostrander, the tireless coordinator and cheerleader for a renowned science and mathematics magnet program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md., was not satisfied. Over the past few years, the pool of applicants had included nearly as many girls as boys, and the acceptance rate — based largely on test scores and grades — had followed suit。

作爲馬里蘭州銀泉市蒙哥馬利布萊爾高中(Montgomery Blair High School)科學和數學磁石計劃(magnet program)的協調員，彼得·奧斯特朗德(Peter Ostrander)一直在爲這項聲名遠播的計劃大聲疾呼，但他很不滿意。在過去的幾年中，申請人中的男孩和女孩人數差不多，接受率——主要基於考試成績和等級——亦是如此。

Yet when it came to which of the invitees ended up choosing Blair’s magnet option over other offerings in the area, the scales tilted male. In 2012, for example, 80 percent of the eligible boys said yes, but only 70 percent of the girls. In 2010, the figures had been 93 percent and 56 percent。

然而，當涉及到哪些受邀者放棄該地區其他項目，轉而選擇這項磁石計劃的時候，天平傾向了男生。比如，在2012年符合條件的男生中，有80%的人選擇加入，但同意加入的女生僅有70%。2010年的這項比例分別爲93%和56%。

Convinced the program could do better at pitching its product to girls, Mr. Ostrander recruited teams of upper-class girls last spring to call their hesitant young counterparts. Extol the wonders of the program, he said. Dispel the tired geek myths。

奧斯特朗德深信，這項計劃可以更好地向女孩們推廣其產品。去年春天，他招募了一批高年級女生，讓她們給那些依然猶豫不決的姐妹們打電話，他說，這樣能頌揚磁石計劃的神奇之處，並驅散令人厭煩的極客神話。

“The stereotype is out there that the magnet is filled with nerdy people,” he said. “Whatever that means。”

“外界的刻板印象向來是，參與磁石計劃的皆是一些毫無生趣的書呆子，”他說。“無論‘書呆子’這個詞究竟意味着什麼。”

The upper-class students took to the phone banks with verve. (Full disclosure: my daughter was one of them。) They talked of fun, extracurriculars and sisterhood. They secured many yes votes and earned pizza and sandwiches — but still, fewer qualified girls than boys are entering the magnet this fall。

這些高年級女生充滿激情地打起了電話(需要說明的是，我的女兒也是其中一員)。她們談到了學習的樂趣，課外活動和姐妹情誼，並最終說服許多女孩選擇加入，也順便爲自己賺到了比薩餅和三明治。但儘管如此，今年秋天加入磁石計劃的女孩依然比男孩少很多。

As a result, the demanding, gratifying, even thrilling four-year immersion in physics, chemistry, biology, calculus, computer science, astronomy, entomology, the proper use of power tools — and yes, the humanities and social sciences — remains almost two-thirds male。

其結果是，在接下來的四年中，沉浸於物理學、化學、生物學、微積分、計算機科學、天文學、昆蟲學、電動工具的正確使用，以及人文和社會科學(沒錯，磁石計劃也包含這兩門學科)這一要求嚴格，但令人滿足，甚至激動人心的學習體驗之中的學生，將依然以男生爲主——大約佔學生總數的三分之二。

Montgomery Blair’s experience is by no means unique. Even as girls prove their prowess in science and math, their ambivalence lingers when it comes to fields formerly painted boy blue。

蒙哥馬利布萊爾高中的情況一點也不特殊。即使事實證明女孩具備研習科學和數學的實力，但一涉及到這些此前被描繪爲男孩專屬領域的學科時，她們的矛盾情緒仍然徘徊不去。

As researchers see it, that reluctance, that slight and possibly subliminal case of unfounded quantipathy, must be confronted and understood if the wider inequities in science are to be rooted out for good. Ample evidence refutes the notion that female brains just can’t rotate the object, leap the quantum, do the math. Worldwide, girls’ average math scores are on a par with those of boys。

在研究人員看來，如果想要徹底根除科學領域更廣泛的不平等現象，各界就必須直面並理解這種猶豫不決的心理，以及輕微的、可能出自潛意識且毫無根據的反數理學科情緒(quantipathy)。充足的證據已經駁斥了那種認爲女性大腦根本不能進行空間思維，量子飛躍和數學題運算的觀點。在世界範圍內，女孩的數學平均成績與男孩大體一致，並無優劣之別。

And even among math geniuses who score in the top ten thousandth of the population — the rarefied precinct notoriously deemed a boys’ club by the former Harvard president Lawrence Summers — the male advantage has been shrinking steadily, to about 3 boys per girl today from 13 in the 1980s。

即使在那些考試成績高居總人口前千分之十的數學天才——這個稀有領域，被哈佛大學(Harvard University)前校長勞倫斯·薩默斯 (Lawrence Summers)惡名昭彰地稱爲男孩地帶——當中，男生的優勢也一直在穩步萎縮：男女生的比例現在已從上世紀80年代的13比1下降至大約3比1。

Joseph Price of Brigham Young University and his colleagues reported this year that the gender gap in high-stakes math competitions disappeared simply by adding more rounds to a contest. Boys did better than girls in single-shot events, the researchers said, but when put through multiple rematches the boys fumbled, allowing the girls to catch up and often surpass them。

楊百翰大學(Brigham Young University)的約瑟夫·普萊斯(Joseph Price)及其同事今年發佈的研究報告顯示，僅僅爲高風險的數學競賽添加更多輪次的較量，優勝者的性別差異就會隨之消失。研究人員聲稱，在單次比賽中，男孩的成績往往比女孩更好，但當參賽者經受多次複賽的時候，男孩就很容易犯錯誤，從而讓女孩迎頭趕上，甚至經常超越他們。

Girls also excel in the classroom. Nationwide, their grade point average in high school math and science is 2.76 out of 4, compared with 2.56 for boys。

女孩的學習成績也高出一籌。在全美國範圍內，高中女生的數學和科學平均績點是 2.76(總分爲4)，男生的平均績點則爲2.56。

The message of equal aptitude has certainly infiltrated today’s youth. In a recent presentation at a meeting of the American Psychological Association, Anthony Derriso of the University of Alabama reported his analysis of a vast 2009 study of more than 21,000 ninth graders nationwide。

男女資質平等這一觀念，肯定已滲透到當代青年人的心靈深處。在美國心理學協會(American Psychological Association)最近召開的一次會議上，阿拉巴馬大學(The University of Alabama)的安東尼·德里索(Anthony Derriso)發佈了他就2009年進行一項大規模調研活動所做的研究分析報告，這項調研活動對遍佈全美各地的逾2.1萬名九年級學生進行了採訪。

Mr. Derriso, who is completing his doctoral dissertation in psychology, determined that students of both sexes rated boys and girls equally competent in science and math; expressed similar levels of confidence in their own math and science skills; and were equally likely to say they felt they were engaged in math and science and were supported by their teachers, parents and peers。

正在撰寫心理學博士論文的德里索斷定，男女學生都認爲男孩和女孩具有均等的科學和數學能力；對於自身的數學和科學技能，他們表達了類似水平的自信心；聲稱自己正在學習數學和科學，並且受到老師、家長[微博]和其他同學支持的男女學生比例亦大體相等。

Yet aptitude is one thing, aspiration another. In answer to the question “Are you likely to pursue a scientific career?” some 2,300 students — 11 percent of the total — said yes. Among the ninth-grade yeasayers, 61 percent were male。

然而，才能是一回事，抱負是另一回事。在回答“你將來有沒有可能選擇科研類工作？”這個問題時，大約2300名學生(約佔受訪總人數的11%)做了肯定答覆。在有此抱負的九年級學生中，61%是男生。

Mr. Derriso admits to bafflement. “If boys and girls are equally interested in math and science and feel equally confident about their abilities,” he wondered, “why this humongous difference in intent? I don’t have an answer for that。”

德里索承認這種現象讓他困惑不解。“如果男孩和女孩對數學和科學同樣感興趣，並且對自身能力具有同等的自信心，”他非常想知道，“他們的職業意向爲什麼會有如此巨大的差異呢？我目前找不出答案。”

The division marches off to college. Connie Chow, the executive director of the nonprofit group Science Club for Girls, pointed out that 29 percent of male college students major in math or science, compared with only 15 percent of female ones. Boys who ace science embrace science, but female mathletes keep their skills at arm’s length. Researchers have found that, among students with high scores on the math portion of the SAT, boys cited their desire to major in the physical sciences, engineering or computers, while the girls preferred fields like economics, political science or medicine. One reason for the disparity may be that girls with high math scores, unlike their male counterparts, also tend to have high verbal scores and so may feel their career options are wide open. But still, given the choice, why do so many girls walk away from science and math?

這種分裂延伸到了大學。非營利組織女孩科學俱樂部(Science Club for Girls)的執行董事鄒瑞兒(Connie Chow)指出，29%的男大學生主修數學或科學，而僅有15%的女大學生選擇這些專業。擅長科學的男孩擁抱科學，但參加過數學競賽的女孩通常會把自身的才能擱置在一旁。研究人員發現，在學習能力評估測試(SAT)數學部分斬獲高分的學生中，男孩通常渴望主修物理、工程或計算機，而女孩的首選領域則是經濟學、政治學或醫學。出現這種差異的原因之一或許是，與男孩不同，數學成績高的女孩也往往擁有較高的語言成績，故而可能覺得自己的職業選擇非常廣闊。但依然有一個問題，既然選擇範圍如此寬廣，那麼爲什麼這麼多女孩最終舍科學和數學而去呢？

In this country, women now earn close to 60 percent of bachelor’s degrees overall, but only 20 percent of the degrees in computer science, 20 percent of those in physics and 18 percent of those in engineering. Women constitute half the nation’s work force but just a quarter of its scientific corps, and women with science degrees are less likely than their male counterparts to work in a scientific occupation. Instead, many end up in health care or education。

在美國，女性現在獲得的學士學位接近總數的60%，但其中僅有20%是計算機科學學位，物理和工程學位的比例分別爲20%和18%。女性佔全美勞動力大軍的半邊天，但在科技人才羣體的佔比僅爲四分之一。此外，相較於男性，擁有科學學位的婦女不大可能從事科技類工作。恰恰相反，許多人最終選擇了醫療保健或教育類工作。

Those fields may be vital and heroic, but nobility comes at a price. Women in nonscience jobs earn just three-quarters the salary accorded those in higher-tech fields, and the paucity of female scientists helps explain the overall wage gap between women and men。

這些領域或許至關重要，非常高尚。但崇高是要付出代價的。從事非科學工作的女性賺取的薪水，僅是高科技領域從業者的四分之三。女科學家的缺乏也有助於解釋男性和女性之間的整體工資差距。

Advocates for women and minorities in science are not afraid to play the money card. Dr. Chow and her colleagues organize after-school science clubs for girls in low-income communities. The girls love it, expressing stronger interest in science than many privileged students. Yet for some of the girls, Dr. Chow said, “knowing how much you can earn as, say, a marine engineer really makes a difference。”

呼籲女性和少數族裔從事科技工作的人士，並不畏懼打“收入牌”。鄒博士和她的同事爲低收入社區的女孩籌辦了一些課外科學輔導俱樂部。這些女孩很喜歡參與，她們對科學的興趣遠大於許多富家女。然而，對於一些女孩來說，“知道從事科技類工作(比如說海洋工程師)能夠賺取多少錢，的確會產生不一樣的激勵效果。”

In seeking to explain girls’ persistent aversion to science, researchers argue that standard surveys won’t reveal hidden impulses or negative thoughts. People may say they consider women the equals of men, but as Jo Handelsman and her colleagues at Yale University reported last year, simply substituting the name Jennifer for John lowered both men’s and women’s estimation of an aspiring scientist’s résumé。

研究人員一直在嘗試着解釋女孩對於科學揮之不去的厭惡情緒。他們聲稱，標準的調查顯示不出隱藏的衝動或消極想法。人們可能會說，他們認爲女性的能力與男性不相伯仲。但正如耶魯大學(Yale University)的喬·漢德斯曼(Jo Handelsman)及其同事去年發佈的研究報告所述，只需用“詹妮弗”這個名字替換“約翰”，就可降低男性和女性對一位潛在科學家的簡歷的評價。

Small details can have serious consequences. Women do worse on standardized math tests when asked to indicate their sex. When they are told men and women do equally well on such tests, their performance improves. Students show greater gains when they are taught that the mind, like a muscle, gets stronger with work, as opposed to being told that talents are fixed and you’re born either quick or slow。

微小的細節有可能產生嚴重的後果。在標準化數學測試中，如果考生被要求表明其性別，女孩的成績就會降低。當女考生被告知參加此類考試的男女生的成績同樣好時，她們的表現就會有所改善。如果學生們被告知，智力如同肌肉，是用進廢退的——而不是被告知天賦是固定的，一個人思維的快或慢是與生俱來的——他們就將獲得更好的成績。

“It’s a uniquely Western phenomenon to say, ‘I’m no good at math, that’s O.K. and I can stop doing it,’ ” Dr. Chow said. “I grew up in Hong Kong, and no parent would say, ‘You’re right, just give up.’ ”

“有些人說，‘我不擅長數學，這沒什麼大不了的，我不再學數學就是了。’這是一種西方社會獨有的現象。”鄒博士說。“我是在香港長大的，從來沒有聽到哪位家長說，‘你說得對，學不會那就乾脆放棄吧。’”

Don’t give up, budding scientist. One day you’ll look in the mirror and proudly embrace the term nerd. Whatever that means。

請不要放棄，未來的科學家。終有一天，你將對着鏡子，自豪地接納書呆子這個綽號。隨別人怎樣解釋這個稱謂的含義。