By Gauri Manoj

Former MVHS physics and chemistry teacher Emily Fitzgerald had always wanted to be a chemist. But during the summer of 2014, after studying chemistry at an organic synthesis lab at Rutgers University, she realized that the isolating environment of a laboratory was not a good match for her sociable personality. Instead, she decided to pursue a career in teaching for a more fulfilling future, entering a chemistry and physics education program at Rutgers Graduate School of Education and there, discovered her passion for teaching physics.

However, Fitzgerald feels that her career as a woman in a STEM field was not met without challenges. Throughout her time working in the lab, she remembers often being the only female in the room and once being told that she was only given the opportunity because the principal investigator of the lab liked the way she looked. Being relatively new to the STEM field, Fitzgerald found herself questioning whether statements like these were true and if she actually had the merit to be given academic opportunities.

“It is easier to be a part of something if you see representation of yourself in that group, and there really is not a representation of females in physics a lot,” Fitzgerald said. “I also think that there’s this idea that a lot of teachers perpetuate, that physics is sort of for an elite few, and that physics is only for a certain type of person. And that certain type of person is coded language for male and often white.”

After receiving her master’s degree in Physical Sciences Education and getting hired as a physics teacher at MVHS in 2016, Fitzgerald was assigned to teach only chemistry classes during her first year as a teacher. Currently teaching physics and chemistry at Passaic Preparatory Academy in New Jersey, she again was originally assigned to only chemistry classes despite also having the credentials to teach physics. For Fitzgerald, these experiences were frustrating — she watched her bosses give her male co-workers the positions that she was equally qualified for.

“For female teachers, it’s like you have to keep proving yourself, you have to keep proving that your physics is correct,” Fitzgerald said. “I think people have a lot of implicit biases about who they see as a physics teacher. And in two separate instances, I’ve had to advocate for myself that I am what a physics teacher looks like too, so having that representation is so important.”

Over the past 25 years of teaching AP Physics C, physics teacher Jim Birdsong says the ratio of boys to girls in AP Physics C has remained relatively stagnant, with an average of five girls in each of his classes per year. Birdsong attributes the small number of girls in his AP Physics C classes to the non-collaborative and antisocial environment the male students create. Based on what he has heard from students, girls are often ignored by their male counterparts in class when asking questions or working on assignments. Due to the switch to remote learning this school year, Birdsong struggles with supervising student’s actions in the Zoom breakout rooms and has attempted to increase communication and collaboration so that students can receive help more easily.

“I’m keeping groups together a little bit longer, because [a student] said that women need a little bit longer to develop credibility,” Birdsong said. “[The girls] think that the guys start off the year thinking that they are useless basically, and that the girls wouldn’t be able to help them or that they didn’t have anything to offer. But if you give them enough time, a few weeks in, then they start to see that ‘Yes, she knows her stuff, I can work with her. I can get something out of communication.’”

AP Physics C student and senior Janya Budaraju believes the disparity in numbers between boys and girls in AP Physics C deter more girls from enrolling in the course. Budaraju shares that being the only woman on her screen during breakout rooms can be very isolating — sometimes, she says her questions are ignored by her male classmates. Echoing Fitzgerald’s sentiment, Budaraju also feels a need to prove her talent in physics, adding a level of pressure to the way she performs in class.

“Something that I struggled with was that I can’t always do better than [the boys],” Budaraju said. “I’m not taking physics because I’m a prodigy at physics;, I’m taking it because I think physics is cool, but I face struggles in it just like I face struggles in any class. So not expecting yourself to be a representation of all women, and not expecting that you’ll always do super well on tests is an important expectation that needs to happen before entering the class.”

Throughout her life as a woman heavily involved in STEM fields, Budaraju thinks one common stereotype about women in STEM is that they are not suited for a rigorous curriculum or prefer to pursue a career in the humanities. Budaraju believes these false perceptions are a product of the implicit biases harbored from a young age, as well as the lack of female representation in science and history textbooks.

“Looking beyond just fixes you can make in Physics C, my hope is that we think about, from an earlier age, the ideas that we’re giving our children, the ideas that people take with them throughout their whole lives,” Budaraju said. “Also, I think it is important that even though men might not be the target of a lot of sexism, there’s a lot of unleaning and thinking about your own implicit biases that I think men need to do before it’s possible to make a difference.”

Birdsong appreciates the suggestions he receives from his female students, and Budaraju feels that having a teacher who is receptive to feedback is very helpful in creating a better classroom environment for women. Although trying his best to encourage kindness and generosity in his AP Physics C classes, Birdsong finds it difficult to ensure that the students are collaborating while simultaneously teaching the curriculum sufficiently. An idea that Birdsong believes will benefit the girls interested in physics is having a female teacher who can empathize with the students better than him.

“I think that a young woman in AP Physics 1, who’s really good at physics would feel a bit safer [if they were to take AP Physics C] knowing that a woman was in charge,” Birdsong said. “[They] probably rightly think that I’m just clueless about everything, and to a large extent I am. I feel very powerless to change it, and I’m working on it. But I think a woman would have instant credibility [for female students] and plus, it’s just a good message, a good model. There’s incredible female science teachers we have, and very good physics teachers, so why not in this class?”

Through surveys and discussing improvements with former female students, Budaraju and her friends, along with Birdsong, are trying to investigate why fewer girls enroll in the course. Because of online learning, improving breakout room etiquette and increasing engagement on Zoom are also things they are working on to ensure that girls are being listened to.

Birdsong hopes to recruit more girls to enroll in his AP Physics C classes next year as course selection season draws near, but first wants to ensure that he has built a strong support system for girls to rely on if they have any issues. This year especially, he is encouraging his students to be more communicative and help each other, as the gender issue has only become more evident to him in the past couple months.

“This whole last six months or so about equity in general and the anti-racism stuff, I realized I have just for too long been going through life with blinders,” Birdsong said. “I’m a physics teacher and I don’t teach social-emotional learning. I don’t teach boys and girls. I teach physics students. And that’s completely ridiculous. I should have woken up long before I did, it should not have taken the last six months to wake me up. I feel very, very bad about that, and I’m just hoping that I can do better.”