‘Not girly, not sexy, not glamorous’: primary school girls’ and parents’ constructions of science aspirations¹

Sciencey Girls: Discourses Supporting Working-Class Girls to Identify with Science

“…She added that becoming a research scientist would enable her to do "loads of things that you wouldn't really get to do, if you were a celebrity or if you were like a singer or an actress or something", which I interpreted as Samira denoting the latter as an inferior option. I suggest that Samira rejected performances associated with typical working-class femininity, which she positioned in opposition with the "factual" (logical, rational) science [17,36,65]. The discourse of rendering gender invisible might therefore entail a risk that girls are expected to adjust to traditionally masculine spaces of science (with a problematic presumption that these are constructed as "gender neutral" spaces where people do not notice gender, as Samira stated).…”

“…Most of the science-aspiring girls in this study (n = 10/15) mentioned professional fields where women participate in similar or greater numbers than men, such as in healthcare. The girls' science-related aspirations could be regarded as motivated by caring for and helping others, which research has previously found to be a strong motivator for many girls' career aspirations [36,92]. The link between healthcare and femininity has also been discussed elsewhere [93,94], with care being integral to dominant constructions of femininity [53,[95][96][97].…”

“…It tends to be more difficult to identify with science for those who perform femininity (who are predominantly girls/women). As Archer et al [36] have argued, science is perceived as not "girly", "sexy" or "glamorous" enough to fit with many girls' desirable performances of femininity. Labels like "boffin" and "geek", commonly associated with high academic achievers and those who are "good" at school science, further contribute to undesirability of the subject [37,38].…”

“…This age was selected because research has shown that already, at the start of secondary schooling, many young people hold strong views whether science is or is not for them [36,43]. Research with this demographic group has predominantly focused on examining the difficulties for engagement and identification with science [2,36,42], with fewer studies exploring how students are making identification with science possible. In this paper, I hope to contribute to the education literature by addressing the following research question: how do working-class, ethnically diverse girls negotiate their identification with science?…”

Science Lives: School choices and ‘natural tendencies’

“…The ASPIRES project (Archer et al, 2013(Archer et al, , 2014 is unequivocal: parents and families exert a considerable influence on students' aspirations. A family's 'science capital' refers to science-related qualifications, understanding, knowledge (about science and 'how it works'), interest and social contacts (e.g.…”