‘Boys always take up sciences and girls get into the arts stream.’
Sound familiar? Yeah, we probably heard this being repeated in our grandparents generation and some of our parents parroted it too. It’s obsolete today because women are making their mark in every field. So who in their senses would ever repeat that line today?
Well, Narayan Murthy’s brother-in-law, Cal Tech Professor Shrinivas Kulkarni actually did say something like that! A professor of astronomy and planetary science, Kulkarni said this as an offhand comment during an interview with National Public Radio (NPR).
“We astronomers are supposed to say, ‘We wonder about the stars and we really want to think about it’ …Many scientists, I think, secretly are what I call ‘boys with toys,'” Kulkarni told host Joe Palca.
It’s one of those quotes that makes you cringe and roll your eyes simultaneously. While the comment was a blunder by Kulkarni rather than a targeted attack, it also exposes the ingrained sexism that goes unacknowledged in the science and technology industries. If nothing else it perpetuates the myth that science and tech are men’s pursuits.
Even worse, it comes at a time when multiple organizations and initiatives are promoting the engagement of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields – also known as STEM.
Twitter decided to call out Kulkarni on his ill-advised comment, and the hashtag #girlswithtoys was born. Female scientists from around the world shared photos of themselves working with tools, machines, and concepts from their fields, thus effectively proving a point.
I play with Mars rovers. #girlswithtoys pic.twitter.com/j6N5tscc8U
— Tanya Harrison (@tanyaofmars) May 17, 2015
This is what an astronomer looks like. And this member of the #girlswithtoys club has been around for a long time. pic.twitter.com/NryOAv5Xkh
— Aomawa Shields (@aomawa) May 17, 2015
In mass spec lab now reading the #girlswithtoys stream. This awesome toy is a thermal ionization mass spectrometer! pic.twitter.com/bGF8T7pbz5
— Rita Parai (@HeNeArXe) May 16, 2015
Hey look I’m helping build a new dark matter detector. #GirlsWithToys http://t.co/jE92aUbpJO pic.twitter.com/gk25jvxsM0
— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) May 17, 2015
Splitting a quartz nodule w/ industrial diamond-studded saw. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, right? #girlswithtoys pic.twitter.com/CnVn2h9LVp
— Katie Kirby (@KatieIKirby) May 20, 2015
I put a navigation sensor test on STS-134, in CDR chair of Endeavour as we finished testing install #GirlswithToys pic.twitter.com/gLP7MnGtAN
— Nujoud Merancy (@nujoud) May 17, 2015
