International Workshop on "Women and Science / Technology" Network in Asia

　　　My presentation is on girls’ attitude towards science using the questioner data collected from Junior-High School students.

1. Backgrounds
　　　“202030” is the goal set for gender equity by the Japanese government in 2003, the ratio of women leaders will be increased to 30% in all fields by the year of 2020. Scientist is defined as one of them. My presentation is about junior-high school girls in 1999 and 2000. This generation of students is now taking doctoral courses in 2011.
　　　The women student ratio in 2011is the following; science 17%, engineering 16%, agriculture 34%, health 33%.The average ratio of natural science has not reached the 30% goal. It is clear that increasing the number of girls who major in science related areas is vitally important to promote the women scientist ratio.

2. General view from previous studies
　　　According to most international surveys (TIMSS 1995, PISA 2006, etc.) and some domestic surveys (National Institute for Educational Policy Research 2001, Benesse Educational Research and Development Center 2006, etc.) clearly show at least the following two points;
1, Girls have a more negative attitude toward science than boys.
2. Girls negative attitude in Junior –High School is getting worse than in their elementary schools.
　　　Based on these findings, the reason why few girls major in science courses is their negative attitude toward science. This conclusion is right and seems to be forming the general view about ‘science and girls’. But the collaboration research which I was involved with (MURAMATSU ed.2004) is focused on three other points.

3. Other points from the collaboration research
　　　Firstly, the research data shows that girls dislike science more than boys in the 7th grade, they study all 9 subjects in Junior high. At the same time, this data also shows that girls do not completely dislike science. It means that the general view has some limitations.
　　　Secondly, the girls’ ratio of ‘dislike’ science are increasing more than boys from 7th to 8th grade. But it has also other side. If we focus on the girls’ ratio of change from disinterest to interest after entering the junior-high, it is 28.4%, almost the same as boys’.
　　　Lastly, what students’ recognize as the value of learning science in the 7th and 8th grade are two important points.
1. Girls recognize that the value of learning science is inside science as well as boys.
2. There are two statistically significant items related to their career, firstly education and secondly to find employment.
　　　These results show that the value of learning science for boys seems to be in benefiting their future academic achievement and career. That is boys tend to have an advantage in science. On the contrary, girls’ change to a positive attitude towards science is related to future family life.
　　　If our understanding is restricted to only the general view, we wouldn’t be able to find that girls’ attitudes towards science are variable and the general view makes the myth about ‘science and girls’ that girls have negative attitude towards science. Moreover this myth prevents building girls’ high self-confidence and raising peoples’ expectation for girls. It is one piece of the evidence that girls felt less expectation from their parents and teachers than boys. This lower expectation seems to originate from the general view, and these low expectations will help to reinforce girls more negative attitudes towards science. It creates a vicious circle.

4. Conclusion
　　　In conclusion, it is dangerous to believe in the myth about ‘science and girls’ from the general view. What is important is to firstly look at the positive side, secondly raise expectations and give more encouragement to girls to enhance the ratio of women scientists.