AIM: Attracting Women into Sciences lclal S. Hartman Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115 Those of us who teach college science are all too familiar with the fear and the ex~ectationof low achievement that most female students bhng to the study of mathematics and the sciences. Whether these women were discouraged or advised out of math and science a t high school, or simply avoided these subjects because of "a common, tacit belief that women are lkss good a t science," ( 1 ) their opinions usually were formed without the benefit of a first-hand experience. Mason finds that "women's presumed inferiority [in sciences] was self-fulfilling, a s inferior opportunities engendered inferior achievement" and that 'cognitive differences between the sexes (while still in dispute) are small." Vetter (2) confirms Mason's observations and concludes that young women's expectations and attitudes are neither accidental nor due to eenetic factors. but directlv attributable to societal conditioning. We meet these students in our introductory science courses, and even when they perform well, they attribute it to luck, resisting the possibility that they can 'do'science. This subjective devaluation of their ability and potential is in direct contradiction to the findings of Ellis and Eng (3) that women are actually good in mathematics and the sciences. Even those students who enjoyed science in high school and are majoring in a science in college recall negative experiences that might have discouraged them. On a recent documentary program ( 4 ) a student compared her high school physics class experience to being in a "shark tank." Another asks: "Why was I seen a s a 'female student' rather than a s a 'student'in my advanced math class? Why were the four girls in advanced physics called a 'problem group'when we needed help, hut a s soon a s the boys were havine trouble, the teacher immediatelv . bewn - eivine review s&ions? There was bias even from female
