And the winner is – a boy
What a clusterfuck.
‘Girls in tech’ competition won by boy
EDF Energy has been criticised after a 13-year-old-boy won a competition that was part of a campaign to attract teenage girls to the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths.
…
EDF said that while its Pretty Curious programme is still aimed at girls, the UK competition was later opened up to all 11 to 16-year-olds.
“Pretty Curious” as the name for a program aimed at girls – see what they did there?
Siiiiiiiiigh
They paused just long enough to insult female people by implying their appearance is what matters about them, and then opened the competition to everyone.
“Congratulations to the winner – but I’d love to hear from EDF how the winning solution meets their stated aim for the competition,” said computer scientist Dr Sue Black OBE.
“It is taking me a bit of time to work out how this result will change girls’ perceptions of Stem.”
It might repel them even more?
Suw Charman-Anderson, who founded the annual celebration of women in Stem, Ada Lovelace Day, told the BBC she had had reservations about the Pretty Curious campaign from the beginning.
“EDF Energy chose to link appearance and interest in Stem through the title of their campaign, despite many people pointing out that it was demeaning to girls,” she said.
“Rather than challenging stereotypes, the focus on girls’ looks rather than their intelligence reinforces them.
“EDF Energy have failed to understand both the nature of the problem [of women in Stem] and the negative impacts that their publicity stunt may well have on girls who took part with genuine enthusiasm and excitement.”
Oh well, they’re only girls.
Here’s a winner:
https://skepchick.org/2016/02/the-science-of-star-wars-the-orbital-mechanics-of-starkiller-base/
It’s a “little math-y and a little computer-y” and just great to read the genuine enthusiasm and excitement and analysis. “It’s wild fun, and I probably learned more about orbits from this project than I did from any class. Not bad.”
How disappointing. I can imagine an initial reaction of , “Am I getting this right? Are they saying it’s “cute” that girls like science? Oh, well, I can still do a serious project, right, they don’t need us to girlify it by doing The Chemistry of Lipstick or whatever.? Cool. … Oh. They like the boy’s project better. I guess I know what college will be like.”
What would you have changed about the structure of the competition?
@3, Consistancy with original stated intent.
I mean, its kinda obvious.
This is a PR stunt that they had no genuine commitment to in the first place. A waste of everyone’s time and energy.