When it comes to interest in science, most people enter the world on a level playing field.

Boys and girls alike experience a natural sense of wonder at the world around them. Whether watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon or watching a meteor shower while lying on the grass, children start life with the innate curiosity every scientist needs.

Think of how they take things apart to see how they work, challenge one another with math puzzles and problem-solving games, and collect stray bugs and animals - my own childhood choice, an opossum, is not recommended. So why, in later years, do so few girls and women wind up exploring careers in science and math?

Culture and history, not nature, create most of the discrepancy between men and women in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Previously, our society saw no role for women in these fields, and such barriers take time to break down. Yet we know that schoolchildren are motivated to perform well in science and math, regardless of gender. And recent data indicate there's little to no difference in ability between female and male students - especially in countries where the culture values having both in the sciences.

In declaring Feb 11, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the United Nations highlights that just 28 percent of current researchers worldwide are women.

We need to keep more women, as well as people of color, engaged with science.

Having careers in science and math remain largely the purview of a minority of the population severely limits our talent pool. That's a threat for large sectors of the economy - and for our ability as a nation to problem-solve some of society's biggest challenges, from infrastructure to disease to climate change.

What's more, having more women and people of color on teams improves scientific outcomes: Researchers have found that scientific papers with more diverse authorship receive more citations, and that a tech startup or pharmaceutical company with more women on its board of directors is more likely to succeed.

I've thought about this a lot since the December death of groundbreaking scientist Vera Rubin. She discovered evidence of dark matter, but she faced numerous unnecessary barriers in her work.

I can only imagine what she might have accomplished if her pursuit of astronomy had been helped, rather than hindered, by some of the people around her.

When I consider how I wound up a scientist, I credit my parents who nurtured my curiosity, tolerating the insect collections and pet opossum, and teachers who encouraged me. When I arrived at the points in my career where relatively few women remained, I retained a stubborn love for science and had supportive male mentors who didn't treat women in laboratories as an unknown species.

I was fortunate. But luck shouldn't determine whether a promising student stays in science. We need to take advantage of the potential in bright and curious girls, allowing them to be as successful as their male counterparts.

That starts with removing all the artificial barriers to success. Parents and teachers can help work against cultural biases, by encouraging and nurturing their daughters' and female students' early interest in science. And people in leadership - from elected officials to school principals - can speak up for a vision of a future STEM workforce that reflects the population as a whole.

Women don't need token accommodations or to be treated as an afterthought. Their value is inherent. But from preschool to graduate school and beyond, we must support girls and boys, men and women.

It's on all of us to foster future interest in STEM and help our children develop the necessary skills to succeed. Our society will benefit from it.

The Dallas Morning News

讓更多的女性投身科學吧

說到對科學的興趣，大部分人都是在同一起點走進科學的世界。

男孩和女孩一樣，都會自然地體驗到周圍世界的神奇。無論是觀察毛蟲破繭成蝶，還是躺在草地上仰望流星雨，孩子們從人生伊始都帶著每一個科學家所需要的那種與生俱來的好奇心。

想想看，孩子們是如何把東西拆得七零八落，來探究里面的構造；如何用數學題和解題游戲來相互挑戰，如何收養“迷途”的小蟲和小動物——我童年選的寵物是一只負鼠，但這個選擇不推薦。那么為什么，長大以后，卻只有很少的女生和成年女性選擇以科學和數學為職業呢？

文化和歷史，而非天性，造成了男女在科學、技術、工程和數學（簡稱科技工數）領域的大部分差異。過去，我們的社會使女性無法在這些領域發揮作用，而這些障礙需要一定的時間去打破。然而，我們知道學童無論性別，都希望自己在科學和數學方面表現優異。最近的數據表明，男女學生之間幾乎沒有能力方面的差異——特別是在那些文化傳統上同等重視培養男女科學人才的國家里。

聯合國在宣布每年的2月11日為“婦女和女童參與科學國際日”時，特別指出全世界現有科研人員中，女性只占28%。

我們需要讓更多的女性以及有色人種投身科學。

科學和數學領域的大部分職業仍只限于少數人群，這嚴重限制了我們人才庫的規模，對經濟的大部分領域都構成了威脅——削弱了我們作為國家解決一些諸如基礎設施建設、疾病控制、氣候變化等最困難問題的能力。

此外，讓更多的女性和有色人種加入團隊也能提高科學成果：研究人員發現，更多樣化的創作團隊所發表的科學論文，被引用的次數也更多。而有更多女性董事成員的科技創業公司或制藥公司，成功的幾率也更大。

自去年12月，具有突破性貢獻的科學家薇拉·魯賓去世后，我就對這一問題思考良多。魯賓發現了暗物質存在的證據，但在工作中卻遭遇了種種不必要的阻礙。

我只能想象，倘若她對天文事業的追求，得到的是周圍一些人的幫助而非阻礙，她又會取得什么樣的成就。

當我回想自己是怎樣走上科學道路時，我要將功勞歸功于我的父母，他們培養了我的好奇心，容忍了我的昆蟲收藏和負鼠寵物。我還要感謝我的老師，是他們鼓勵了我。當我開始職業生涯，但周圍卻沒有幾名女性時，我仍然對科學保持了執著的熱愛，并得到了男性導師的支持，他們并沒有像對待未知物種那樣對待實驗室里的女性。

(本段的翻譯有獎征集中)

這就需要我們從清除一切人為限制成功的障礙開始做起。父母和教師可以共同努力，抵制文化中的偏見，鼓勵和培養他們的女兒和女學生對科學萌發的早期興趣。而領導者——從當選的官員到學校校長——都應該呼吁構建一個美好愿景：一個能夠反映整體人口男女構成的未來“科技工數”的從業大軍。

女性不需要特殊照顧或被當作候補對待。她們的價值與生俱來。但從幼兒園到研究生院乃至更高的學術機構， 我們都必須同等地支持男孩和女孩，成年男性和女性。

我們大家需要一起努力，來營造未來對“科技工數”的興趣，幫助我們的孩子學會取得成功的必要技能。我們的社會將因此而受益。

上期獲獎者：長春　吉林大學附屬實驗學校高二5班　季知林