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Sexism row over 'Engineering Barbie'

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
''Experts said that despite 'Engineering Barbie' encouraging girls to build things, it reinforced unhelpful stereotypes'' CREDIT: THAMES AND KOSMOS

''A sexism row has erupted over a new Barbie doll which encourages girls to become engineers by building washing machines and racks for their shoes and jewellery.'' - The Telegraph

It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this.  Do you agree that it reinforces unhelpful stereotypes?  I should imagine that it would spark a similar argument to that of the pink Lego and only allowing girls to build things like kitchens and princess castles.


Read more...c5b92357e5d150f1a90b75f3bbe91546-huge-barbie-1.jpg







  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Dr  Jenni Sidey, IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award winner, spoke on BBC Radio Cambridge this week about engineering Barbie, as well as her job and how she got into engineering. 

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04pblsw - listen at 1 hour 47 mins.


    Jo

  • 0

    Abimbola Akanwo-Hood:



    I just came across this email from Imperia College: 

    Gendered Research and Inclusive Innovation



    As part of Diverse@Imperial week. The lecture will cover how understanding sex and gender makes STEM-research more effective and innovative.

    www3.imperial.ac.uk/.../event_13-1-2017-17-4-1


    It's open to all. The lecture is on 2nd Feb. Hope some people can attend.



     




    Thanks for adding this. I watched it as a live stream and it was incredibly interesting. It is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI3IhJB5FeY (NB. As it was filmed live, the video starts before the lecture does. The actual lecture starts about 9 minutes in to the video).


    The whole hour is definitely worth a watch, but particularly interesting were the comments on machine learning from large data sets and the results of the "'Man' is to 'Woman' as 'Computer Programmer' is to '__________'." section (about 29 minutes in) and the bike stealing experiment (about 50 minutes in).


    There are also some very interesting points raised too about how climate change is disproportionately disadvantageous to women and girls (eg. girls are more likely to have to fetch water and, in droughts, women and girls have to travel further in search of water therefore have less time available to spend on school and homework etc.) (this is about 31 minutes in).

  • 0
    As well as the "Engineering Barbie" and the Computer Programmer Barbie book, there was also this AI Barbie who said things like "We’ve been talking a bit about school, why don’t we try on something else for size? Let’s chat about fashion!”


    In Hello Barbie’s lexicon, the words style, shop and jewelry appear more frequently than both the words math and science. Pizza and fairies also get more mentions. The word “fashion” appears more often than almost any other noun.

    http://fusion.net/story/253299/is-hello-barbie-sexist/
  • 0

    Abimbola Akanwo-Hood:




    Jo Foster:
    ''Experts said that despite 'Engineering Barbie' encouraging girls to build things, it reinforced unhelpful stereotypes'' CREDIT: THAMES AND KOSMOS

    ''A sexism row has erupted over a new Barbie doll which encourages girls to become engineers by building washing machines and racks for their shoes and jewellery.'' - The Telegraph

    It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this.  Do you agree that it reinforces unhelpful stereotypes?  I should imagine that it would spark a similar argument to that of the pink Lego and only allowing girls to build things like kitchens and princess castles.


    Read more...    c5b92357e5d150f1a90b75f3bbe91546-huge-barbie-1.jpg







     




    I just came across this email from Imperia College: 

    Gendered Research and Inclusive Innovation



    As part of Diverse@Imperial week. The lecture will cover how understanding sex and gender makes STEM-research more effective and innovative.

    www3.imperial.ac.uk/.../event_13-1-2017-17-4-1


    It's open to all. The lecture is on 2nd Feb. Hope some people can attend.



     




    With thanks to Amber Thomas‍ , a recording of the lecture (fascinating talk, can recommend finding time over tea/coffee to watch) is available on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI3IhJB5FeY

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