"Why Janie Can't Engineer"

In the Washington Post, we ran across another article in the ongoing exploration into why math and science careers don't attract more women.

The article by Post writer Pat McNees includes some interesting teaching guidelines aimed at getting girls interested in science at school, including this advice to "get messy."

Help girls get past the "yuck" factor. Science is messy, so put aside your desire for clean girls and surfaces. Girls who are afraid of getting dirty aren't born that way -- they're made. In after-school science programs, girls all over the nation are being encouraged to get messy, explore, analyze, dissect, hypothesize and make mistakes. … As an adult, you can help girls resist the pressure to behave in "feminine" ways. Encourage them to get good and grubby: to dig in a riverbed, change a tire or explore an engine. Let them learn they have a right to be themselves.

Read the whole story when you get a chance.