The International Women and Girls in Science Day is an annual global observance commemorated on Feb.11. Established by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2015, the day raises awareness of the challenges faced by women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) environments and their contributions to the field.
STEM is a primary focus of Hockaday academics, providing many students with the opportunity to engage in hands-on learning with foundational concepts. Hockaday encourages women to participate in STEM, with many alumnae engaging in various STEM fields both academically and professionally. However, women still struggle with barriers such as gender bias and underrepresentation.
Upper School Physics Teacher Brittany Pendleton said she has always been outnumbered by men in her prior STEM workforce experiences.
“From my experience, there are not that many women in STEM,” Pendleton said. “I think there were a total of three females in my graduate program out of 50 people. We need more girls in STEM.”
Pendleton attended the Professional Physics PhD Program at the University of Oklahoma (OU), where she specialized in Atomic, Molecular and Optical (AMO) physics. Her research focused on studying atoms at extremely low temperatures, allowing her to explore quantum behavior and create a Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC), a rare state of matter where atoms act in a single quantum system. To achieve this, she used a 3D Magneto Optical Trap (MOT), which relies on lasers and magnetic fields to cool and confine atoms for close observation. She ended up designing the first 2D MOT in the entire world for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Pendleton’s success demonstrates her determination and perseverance in a professional environment that seemed unwelcoming to women.
“It’s really easy to forget that we are in a bubble [at Hockaday],” Pendleton said. “It’s important to actively discuss women in STEM because, a lot of the time, there’s going to be men who like to insert themselves in front of every situation.”
Likewise, Upper School Physics Teacher Stephen Balog works to cultivate that confidence for his students in what is a traditionally male-dominated subject.
“Physics can be intimidating,” Balog said. “What I try to do is recognize that it’s very fundamental to ask questions. You should never be sorry that you have a question.”
That nurturing of curiosity is evident throughout the STEM classes at Hockaday.
“The curriculum across the board is designed to spark curiosity, encourage asking questions and just recognize that nothing is certain,” Balog said. “It’s okay to not know something. One of the main goals of science is learning how to think critically about the unknown.”
Many students have their own STEM initiatives and extracurriculars outside of school. For example, sophomore Ariel Yuan is one of the founders of Youth Stemline, with sophomores Aravli Paliwal and Katherine Mao, which provides a publishing outlet for community youth to increase access to STEM information.
Yuan reflects on how Youth Stemline enables students to share and learn about other perspectives in STEM.
“A big portion of our writers are actually from Hockaday,” Yuan said. “For the people writing, it’s getting to learn more about STEM and then incorporating it with writing, but there’s also the impact that it can make on the kids who read. You have so much access to information that’s digestible for someone our age and about topics that we think our peers would care about.”
Yuan continues to advocate for STEM learning.
“I think continuing to reshape the narrative of STEM education is something that doesn’t have to be serious all the time,” Yuan said. “It can be fun, and a lot of times when you’re learning about STEM, you’re just exploring things that you’re interested in. As we have even more writers and more articles published, readers will start to see a shift towards more of that exploratory learning, and they’ll try to seek out things that they’re interested in.”
Yuan said International Women and Girls in Science Day highlights female accomplishments that are often overlooked.
“It acknowledges the fact that there are so many women out there who have and continue to do great work,” Yuan said. “I think having a designated day to commemorate that is definitely well-deserved because they don’t get as much recognition as their male counterparts in their day-to-day life.”
