The Silent Sabotage: Why We Need More South African STEMinists in the Lab, not Just in the Class

As the self-proclaimed digital gogo, I get fired up by a lot of things: a perfectly solved equation, a new theorem, or a girl confidently nailing her final exam. But nothing gets my wires crossed faster than the tired, dusty, and downright dangerous myth that "girls are just not good at science and math." Eish, that statement is so old, it belongs in a museum next to a dinosaur fossil.

I’ve been doing a little homework, and a brilliant physicist named Athene Donald has done the hard work for us in her book, "Not Just for the Boys". She lays out the cold, hard facts about why girls don’t just "fall out" of the science pipeline—they are, in fact, systematically nudged, pushed, and sometimes outright sabotaged by a system that was never built for them. And if we, in our complex South African context, don't pay attention, we'll continue to lose out on half of our brightest minds.

Here’s the thing. We talk a big game about girls succeeding in science. We cheer when they get good matric results. But then, as research shows, something happens. The numbers start to drop. The pipeline starts to leak. And that leak isn't a natural occurrence; it's a sign of a deep, systemic problem.

The "Draw-a-Scientist" Test, Mzansi-Style

Dr. Donald talks about the infamous "Draw a Scientist" test, where for decades, children overwhelmingly drew a man in a white coat with crazy hair. I wonder what a Mzansi child would draw today? A man with an iPad? Very few, if any, would draw a young girl from their township with an idea to create a solar-powered water purifier.

The moment a five-year-old girl decides she's "not really, really smart" enough for the "hard" subjects is the moment the sabotage begins. It starts with the toys we give our children. Campaigns like "Let Toys be Toys" found that toys for boys are marketed with "agentic" words like 'power' and 'adventure', while girls' toys get passive, descriptive words like 'beautiful' and 'glitter'. We’re literally telling our boys to explore the world and our girls to sit back and look pretty while they do it.

But what if we told them a different story? What if we gave every child a Lego set—not the pink, sparkly "friends" version, but the one with spaceships and pirates? Studies on brain plasticity showing that spatial awareness isn't innate; it's a skill you can build with practice. If we let our girls play, they will learn. It’s as simple as that.

The Leaky Pipeline is Just Bad Plumbing

You've seen the charts. The "scissor graphs" that show a beautiful abundance of women at the undergraduate level, but a sharp drop as they move up to PhDs and senior positions.

Academic data from 2015

We have a language for this. Let’s talk about the countless gendered slings and arrows that women face.

• The "Motherhood Penalty": A woman with a new baby is seen as "less serious," even though fathers have been combining parenting and science for centuries. The real challenge isn't giving birth, but managing flexible time for the next 20 years. That's a parent issue, not just a gender one.

  
  

• The "Miss Triggs" Effect: Remember when you had an idea in a meeting, only to have a man say the exact same thing five minutes later and get all the credit? It's a form of unconscious bias that keeps women from getting the recognition they deserve.

1988 Punch, Cartoon by Riana Duncan

• The "Likeability vs. Competence" Trap: Women often face a dilemma men do not: if they are perceived as too competent and assertive, they are deemed unlikable. It's a no-win scenario.

  
  

These aren't just minor inconveniences. They are systemic failures. Our academic institutions, research labs, and private companies have a responsibility to fix this, not just for moral reasons, but because diversity is a direct driver of innovation.

My STEMinist Manifesto

Enough is enough. The world faces existential crises like climate change and the next big pandemic. We need all hands on deck, and that means every girl's talent, intuition, and unique perspective needs to be on the table.

We can't just talk about it. We have to be the change.

• To Parents and Guardians: Give girls the tools to build their world - Lego, chemistry sets, computers. Encourage curiosity. When they say, "I want to be a vaccinologist," like the incredible Dr. Sarah Gilbert, show them how she built her career. Don't let your own unconscious biases dictate their path.

  
  

• To Educators: Be allies. Actively look for bias in your classroom. Don't let boys dominate the conversation. Use diverse examples in your textbooks and lesson plans. When a girl says she's interested in physics, don't say, "That's unusual for a girl". Instead, say, "South Africa needs you."

  
  

• To Our Young STEMinists: Be resilient. Be persistent. The road won’t always be easy, but as the incredible Nobel laureate Ada Yonath said, passion is the key. Love what you do, because that love is what will get you through the dark periods.

  
  

Let's make sure that a century from now, when someone asks a South African child to "Draw a Scientist," they draw a picture of a girl. And that girl looks just like them.

Now get out there and break something. Not a fragile toy, but a tired, broken stereotype.

Reference: Donald, A. M. (2023). Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science. Oxford University Press.