« nsf research into women and tech | Main | If Everybody Had An Ocean »
October 26, 2003
Planet Jemma
The lack of female role models in technology is one of the classic causes discouraging most girls and young women from entering the field. Planet Jemma is an unusual way of dealing with this: Jemma, a fictional young woman who's just started studying science at university, will befriend you, will send you emails and text messages, and will let you read her web diary and watch her webcam. Planet Jemma is set up like an online soap, with 14 episodes, on the model of the innovative interactive drama Online Caroline, but Planet Jemma is specifically meant to show teenaged girls what it might be like to study science. Jemma talks about her studies as well as about her friends, crushes on boys and so on. Planet Jemma is funded by The British Council, which also has an interesting piece explaining the background: "Girls in Britain do well in science exams. Then as they get older, drop the subject like a hot Bunsen burner." If there aren't enough real role models, perhaps creating some new, fictional ones is a good solution. Which reminds me, is computer scientist Barbie in shops yet?
Posted by Jill Walker at 01:57 AM in Media | Permalink
Comments
Jill = Very interesting post. Since I'm really keen on fiction, this gets me thinking. Halley
Posted by: Halley Suitt at Oct 26, 2003 10:40:55 AM
I feel so torn about this! On one hand, my support goes out to anyone who is tackling this problem, and to see someone try something creative and new is wonderful. On the other hand, I am horrified that we would try to patronize these girls so... 'hey, lets talk about boys and dating, and do some science too'...
The thing I love about being a girl, and a technologist, is that I stand here of my own intellect and volition. I didn't choose this because it was cool, or easy, or because someone else who was cool was doing it. This site doesn't seem to be encouraging girls to think for themselves, it seems to be encouraging every single stereotype out there, in some kind machiavellian 'the ends justifies the means' way - if only we can get them interested in the 'girly' things, they won't notice that we're indoctrinating them to like science along the way...
But this is just one approach - maybe I need to put my money/time where my mouth is, and make the 'rebel tech pixie' site - where girls can buck the trends, and stand proud and defiantly smart, throwing off the simpering stereotypes that bind us... hmm, I like that. Much more constructive than simply dissing somebody else's vision...
Well, here's to as many smart women as possible trying to help in every possible way...
Cheers.
Pixie
Posted by: SillyPixie at Oct 28, 2003 2:02:44 PM
ok, so they get an A (no, make that an A-) for effort - but wouldn't it have been
more inspiring/useful to turn Planet Jemma into a real world experience? Maybe
get a co-op of real young women studying science and sign them on as mentors and
have them lead discussions, answer questions, etc. Not to say that fictional people
can't be inspiring but a living, breathing example of all the possibilities that are
open to you seems like a more galvanizing force to me.
Posted by: rachel at Oct 29, 2003 12:19:02 PM
http://markBernstein.org/Oct0301.html#note_35176
The conception is, frankly, appalling. The dominant concern appears to be that an active intellectual life unfits a woman for romance. Do girls in Britain really fear that, if they study science, nice boys won't kiss them in the student kitchen?
And, if you were a TA and you walked into the kitchen and found a first-year grad student kissing her boyfriend (day 5), would your first response be to bellow "What's going on here?" I mean, seriously, most advanced grad students could figure that out, right? I bet most of the 13-year-old audience could think faster on their feet than this.
It would be interesting would be to find out how a well-intentioned project could have gone so badly off the rails.
Posted by: Mark Bernstein at Oct 30, 2003 3:17:28 PM
i love fiction people say i shoudl go 4 modling but im to scared in case i get turnd down and evey one says i look gook im only a teenager nearly 20
so i think it would be good
jemma
Posted by: jemma at Feb 10, 2004 3:55:41 PM
