Sometimes, I'm able to sneak into the "science" classification. After all, I'm a sociologist (Really, I am! I have a bachelor's degree and everything!), and sociology is a social science. So, on occasion, I can be like, "Yeah, the sciences! We are cool."
In reality, I am not a scientist. Any science teacher I've ever had (especially Mr. Matykowski for physics my junior year of high school--woof) or anyone who has seen my science score on the ACT can attest to that fact. I like biology, especially human anatomy, but chemistry and physics and usually science in general require a lot of math. I ain't a math person, y'all. Letters--that's where it's at. Hence the law school thing. I must confess I find some joy in basic algebra, because there is an explainable logic to it and there is a right answer, but anything harder is usually beyond me. I took all the math and science required, and I even took more than was required in both high school and college (I may not love math and science, but I am a nerd straight through to my core), but I've never loved either discipline and I never will.
I'm always kind of jealous of girls who are mathematicians or chemists or physics or engineers, though, and I've identified two main sources of this jealousy: occupational prestige and feminism. Occupational prestige, for those of you who would like an explanation because you pursued degrees that might actually lead to some sort of career besides theorizing, case working, or study-conducting (wow, I should probably learn the real word for that) is the level of respect an occupation holds in society. For example, janitorial work has lower occupational prestige than teaching. The highest occupational prestige usually goes to doctors. Let's face it, we like those guys. It doesn't mean that position actually holds more value for the society (I'm more of a structural-functionalism type of gal so I cringe a bit from any role being "better" than another when we actually need them all to keep our society in balance), but people generally have ideas on what careers are better than others. Mathematicians and scientists have pretty high occupational prestige because those are jobs that are important (arguably...what does math REALLY contribute to society, anyway? [I'm kidding!]) and require a lot of schooling/technical knowledge and just seem really hard.
That's why I have any jealousy for mathematicians and scientists in general. But my jealousy for women in those fields stems from feminism. (And maybe because their dating odds are waaaaay better than mine were in sociology and even mine now in the male-majority legal world, because probably at least 80% of my male classmates are married.) These women are breaking into what has long been considered a field only for men! Women tend to lag behind men in the math and science fields even from elementary school. (Though that's starting to change in the younger grades, it's still true in our country by the time students finish high school.) These women are champions for the cause! They're breaking the barriers and getting into male-dominated fields. Votes for women!!
So, it's too late for me to get into science. I can personally get interested in science (actually I probably can't because when I see numbers I want to run away), but I can't change my whole educational/career tract. And I don't really want to, because, you know, I actually do kind of like what I'm doing--that's why I'm doing it. But I can try to get my (possible) daughters into math and science. I'm not talking about forcing them into anything they don't want to do; if I have 100 daughters and 100 of them want to be English teachers, fine. (I will not have 100 daughters.) But am I going to have math flashcards and do science experiments along with getting them hooked on reading? Heck yes! Even if they don't become engineers or chemists, at least they'll be smart. (Right? A girl can dream.)
So, to sum up: I think women in the hard sciences are way cool and I hope I have at least one daughter who breaks into a male-dominated field.
(For the record: I also think male mathematicians and scientists are cool and I admire them a lot, and I would never discourage a man wanting to go into those fields, especially if I had a son doing so. But I am a feminist and these stream-of-consciousnesses happen.)
P.S. I just really want an excuse to be able yell, "Yeah, science!" like Jesse from an early episode of Breaking Bad, from whence comes the title of this post.
