November 16, 2014
Following the release of ‘Interstellar’ it’s been proposed that perhaps having more female’s in STEM fields on screen (TV and film) may help attract females into STEM careers.
I DO NOT necessarily agree with this plus issue some warnings. Below is where I discuss this in my book “Women in IT in the New Social Era”
Cave (2013) proposed “Maybe HBO should commission a glamorous IT drama with Megan Fox cast as the head geek?” and indeed I proposed a like “solution” in a Government report circa 2000. This style of solution attempts to exploit how popular culture influences perceptions and drives outcomes.
There is no denying the effect that a popular glamorisation can have on career interest in a field. The TV series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” is a classic case. In the USA, “180 people applied for 20 spots in the forensic-science master’s program at Michigan State University in East Lansing” (Lovgren, 2004), while “In Australia, the number of education institutes offering forensic science qualifications has boomed from one university in 1994 to nearly 20 in 2005. In the UK, the number of students enrolled in forensic science majors have increased from 2,191 in 2002-03 to 5,664 in 2007- 08” (Samarji, 2013). Ashcraft et al. (2012) report “One survey of 508 U.K. students aged 14-18
found that forensic scientist — an occupation only recently popularized in recent crime dramas such as CSI — was girls’ 6th most popular job choice and boys’ 8th most popular job choice (Miller & Hayward, 2006).” In addition there has been an overall increase in the use of the word forensic in titles of science courses worldwide (Samarji, 2013), as well as in job descriptions in science and other areas such as forensic accounting.
The effect of popular culture on career interest is not a recent phenomenon. For example in Australia the TV series “A Country Practice” aired from 1981 – 1993, and whilst it was primarily about a country medical practice and hospital, the show included a very popular veterinary practice and anecdotal reports of increased enrolments in vet studies followed. Given those trends and the popularity of the TV series The Big Bang Theory, we may be about to see a similar spike in astrophysics-flavoured courses.
These examples hint at the power of popular culture to raise awareness and influence perceptions about occupations. A word of caution though is flagged by Rincon (2005): “People have unrealistic expectations of forensic science thanks to the success of the CSI TV shows.” Consequently Samarji (2013) writes, “Some Year-12 students, I would contend, are taken in by TV shows to the extent they start enquiring about forensic science courses before even considering whether they truly enjoy science or whether there are job opportunities for them when they graduate. Some students, in my experience, want to become forensic experts without considering whether or not they are prepared to work at 2am picking blowfly larvae from a corpse with a pair of tweezers. The fact forensic science is very specialised and forensic investigations can be challenging, time-consuming and complicated is often overlooked by movie and TV show makers – and consequently students and the public at large.”
A further downside can be a flood of qualified applicants into a market that hasn’t enough jobs for them – or has no jobs of the flavour sought.
For example, “In Australia there are just over a thousand forensic scientists in a very stable environment. Consequently, there are very few vacant positions per year” (National Institute of Forensic Science [NIFS], 2001). The Victorian Police Force in Australia were prompted to publish a statement titled “Is Forensic Science really like the television show CSI?,” which compares reality to the show and concludes “there are no jobs in Australia like those depicted on CSI” (Victoria Police, 2013). And while demand for IT workers greatly exceeds that for forensic scientists, if our aim is to encourage girls into IT the last thing we need is a horde of women being disillusioned by such careers. Much as I like the female geek character Felicity in the TV series Arrow, the chance of a real woman finding herself aiding a romantic masked vigilante by hacking into government systems in order to bring justice to a corrupt city is rather remote!
Such glamorised popular stories can have yet further unexpected and negative roll on effects in society at large. For example, the “CSI Effect” has given the general public and even police officers exaggerated impressions of the power and speed of forensic science, leading to all kinds of unrealistic expectations from jurors expecting extensive forensic evidence even where it isn’t necessary, to police and families expecting answers in hours rather than months (Rincon, 2005; Samarji, 2013).
Food for thought – it’s not all about instant wow that’s a great idea, time to consider the wider ramifications as well. In the end those who KNOW from an early age they love STEM pursue those careers and popular culture has nothing to do with that.
references:
Ashcraft, C., Eger, E., & Friend, M. (2012). Girls in IT: The facts. Boulder, CO: National Centre for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT).
Cave, K. (2013). Women in IT: Does the shortage matter? IDG Connect Infographic. Retrieved May 22, 2013, from
http://www.idgconnect.com/abstract/1251/infographicwomen-it-does-shortage-matter
Lovgren, S. (2004). CSI effect is mixed blessing for real crime labs. Retrieved August 4, 2013, from http://news.nationalgeographic.co/news/2004/09/0923_040923_csi.html
National Institute of Forensic Science. (2001). Career information. Retrieved August 16, 2013, from http://www.nifs.com.au/F_S_A/FSA_frame.html?Careers.asp&1
Rincon, P. (2005). CSI shows give ‘unrealistic view’. Retrieved August 4, 2013, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4284335.stm
Samarji, A. (2013). Get real, forensic scientists: The CSI effect is waning. Retrieved August 4, 2013, from
http://theconversation.com/get-real-forensic-scientists-the-csieffect-is-waning-13260
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