Unity and Passion
Teachers at an NYC all-girls school say that all-girls science education shifts the narrative about who does science and teachers girls to be prepared for sexism
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by Calliope Speredakos
Group one chose centipedes and millipedes. Group two chose pill bugs. Group three chose ants. Each group walked to Central Park and painstakingly collected specimens. Back at the classroom, they extracted and analyzed the organisms’ DNA and sent the samples off to a lab to be sequenced. In just a few weeks, they would present their findings at the Urban Barcode Symposium in Brooklyn, eyes set on recognition of their research by the DNA Learning Center.
The dozen high school girls at the Marymount School of New York participating in the Urban Barcode Project–a science competition where students barcode DNA to investigate genetic biodiversity in New York City–are a part of the school’s Independent Science Research (ISR) elective.
Many students at Marymount, an all-girls private high school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, are passionate about science.
Marymount students in technology class, photo from Marymount's website, 2023
For girls everywhere, high school is a critical period for scientific learning. A 2017 Microsoft survey found that girls start losing interest in science around the age of 15. They are socialized to pursue more humanities-based subjects throughout their childhood, but the article argues that the acute loss of interest in science comes around this age.
They are also beginning high school at this time. “High school is the time where students take more ownership of their learning,” says Fiona Williams, a 9th and 12th-grade biology teacher at Marymount.
"I like [having] the opportunity to get people excited about
science and to support them in being scientists,” says Dr. Anne Kloimwieder, leader of Marymount’s ISR elective and also a 9th-grade biology teacher.
At an all-girls school, where no male competition exists, Williams and Kloimwieder say they teach their students to love and be passionate about science and not lose interest in the subject. They believe all-girls education shifts the narrative of science away from men and provides a safe space for their students to learn about scientific biases.
Marymount is a Roman Catholic school founded by Mother Marie Joseph Butler in 1926. It is part of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM), an institution of Catholic women with global ministries. Marymount’s mission centers on empowering young women through education. Science has always been at the forefront of its ideals. The school established its first Science Club in 1931. In 1992, the school embarked on its “Campaign for Science” to finance the construction of three new science labs in the building.
A study published in 2019 in Psychology Today cites the long-held belief that all girls-education is beneficial. This study says that girls have more motivation, higher self-esteem, and a greater likelihood to pursue traditionally male-dominated fields if they have studied in an all-girls environment.
“Girls have been socialized to make themselves as small as possible,” Kloimwieder says. “An all-female environment allows [girls] to excel… [it allows] all girls to be engaged.” In a classroom environment, Kloimwieder says, even a single male student can cause the girls to lean back and disengage. The male student will lean in, dominate the conversation, and be the most engaged in the material.
A recent Gallup study found that classroom engagement is vital in students’ education. The more involved a student is in class, says the study, the more enjoyable a subject will be for them, and the more they will learn to love it.
In co-ed schools, since boys often engage more, they are also the ones whose scientific passions are often more nurtured and supported, says Kloimwieder. It is only natural, then, that an
The author, an alumna of Marymount, presenting her independent science research project at Marymount's annual Independent Science Research Symposium, photo by author, 2022
all-girls school makes the environment much more engaging to female-identifying students, she says. She believes all-girls schools like Marymount create an environment where female students want to speak up and take up space and a place where they feel heard and encouraged.
All-girls environments do not just lead to more engagement from females in the classroom. Williams, an alumna of an all-girls school herself, says these types of schools also tend to be more collaborative and comfortable for women. “Women are taught to be social and collaborative,” she says. “My students want to help each other learn.” She says they succeed in environments without male versus female competition, where they can work together to achieve a common goal. Kloimwieder adds to that point, asserting that in an environment where almost everyone’s same gender is part of their identity, collaboration comes even more naturally.
According to the Office of Research Integrity, collaboration allows girls to compare ideas and share knowledge, often leading to breakthroughs and the development of close relationships that are incredibly beneficial down the line. The girls themselves agree. “It’s empowering,” recounts one of Kloimwieder’s students when asked about the collaborative nature of science at Marymount. “There’s definitely an environment of girls supporting girls.”
Williams and Kloimwieder believe Marymount already has a strong foundation and environment to encourage science among its students. They say that all-girls education helps them change the narrative of science and teach their students about biases. It is no secret that sexism within STEM fields still exists, especially when the more specialized the STEM field, the fewer women are present, a term known–according to the University of Maryland–as the “Leaky Pipeline” effect.
Both teachers believe that learning about sexism in scientific fields while still in school helps their students become more aware and knowledgeable. “You do need to explicitly teach your students [about biases],” says Williams. “Sexism is implicitly there.” She cites textbooks as prime examples of this, which often focus on white male-driven achievements and do not include the narratives of women or people of color. “We need to disrupt narratives of only men doing science,” she says. And she says they need to do it in a way that also acknowledges and helps students understand that these narratives do shape many women’s experiences.
Kloimwieder takes a similar stance, often giving her students examples of stories of successful women in science. “[I try] to get rid of the narrative in media of scientists as white men,” explains Kloimwieder, echoing Williams. “And I try to look at the data and have my students look at the data to see why [there’s] this attrition of women as you get to higher levels of science.”
In her ISR class, Kloimwieder starts each year by giving her students a handout explaining precisely these statistics. Her students resonate well with the lesson in science diversity–“I don’t think you’d learn about that anywhere else,” reasons one. “It was helpful, especially since this is an all-girls school.”
Kloimwieder believes that Marymount being an all-girl school only helps with this difficult lesson in sexism. “In a co-ed environment, you spend a lot of time arguing with boys,” she says. “Some boys will just accept the data, but not all [boys]. In an all-girls school, everyone accepts the data because everyone realizes it’s part of their reality.”
Kloimwieder is adamant about hiding nothing from her students regarding the challenges they may face in science, whether that be showing them statistics or sharing her own experiences. Kloimwieder remembers watching the documentary Picture a Scientist with her students, and says that “One of my students at my old school asked me, ‘Is it really that bad?’ and I was like, ‘Oh… yes.’”
There is a fine line between educating and dissuading; Kloimwieder certainly walks it. “It’s something I struggle with,” she says. “How do you prepare female-identifying students for the discrimination they are going to experience while not scaring them away from science?”
Nonetheless, she believes that letting them know, that
Marymount seniors in Molecular Biology, photo from Marymount's website, 2023
warning them, is better than letting them get to college or post-grad and face it head-on, with no foundation and no knowledge to rely on. They need to realize that “when this nonsense happens, it is not [their] fault. It has nothing to do with [them] and everything to do with sexist and closed-minded people.” People who are incapable of believing that women can accomplish and succeed at all that men can, she says.
Williams agrees, and says the unity of Marymount as an all girls school is unmatched at a co-ed one. Marymount encourages its students to “challenge, shape, and change the world,” she says. “To be lifelong learner[s] and do something with it.”
Back in ISR, the groups chat and laugh among themselves, talk of science matched in equal measure with gossip about their days and complaints about the challenging week ahead. Class is just about over, and laptops slam shut, specimens are put away, backpacks get re-stuffed with books and pencil cases and planners. For these girls, their science curriculum is over for the day. But, as far as Williams and Kloimwieder are concerned, they will wake up tomorrow feeling just as empowered, just as confident, aware of the challenges, but ready to face the world and each new scientific opportunity with passion and vigor.
Calliope Speredakos, a freshman at Brown University, is a native New Yorker who loves paleontology and reading.
Commentary:
This piece is very close to my heart because I actually went to Marymount from 5th grade to my senior year. As a student, I had always heard teachers talk about the benefits of an all-girls school, and it is, of course, one of the things Marymount promotes on its website. However, for this story, I wanted to talk to specific science teachers (both of whom I actually had for class!) as well as other students at the school to find out their opinions on the benefits of all-girls education (specifically for science). I was especially happy to Zoom interview the independent science research class–which became my lede and conclusion–because it took a huge amount of coordination to allow me to sit in on the class. At a few different points, I didn’t think I was going to be able to. Overall, this story was fun and even a bit nostalgic, and I felt particularly close to it and its interview subjects.
Source List:
Zoom interview with Anne Kloimwieder (2/21)
Zoom interview with Fiona Williams (2/26)
Zoom interview of various students in an independent science research class (4/19)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-011-0013-6
https://ori.hhs.gov/education/products/niu_collabresearch/collabresearch/need/need.html
https://xello.world/en/blog/student-engagement/what-is-student-engagement/
https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/28/technology/girls-math-science-engineering/index.html
https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/28/technology/girls-math-science-engineering/index.html
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