Girls don’t “tend to fancy” doing physics because of the “hard maths” involved, the social mobility tsar told MPs today.
Katharine Birbalsingh made the comments while appearing before MPs on the Science and Technology Committee this morning, which is looking at diversity and inclusion in science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.
The recently-appointed chair of the Social Mobility Commission made the comments when asked about the current state of access in Stem subjects and its role in social mobility.
Ms Birbalsingh, who is also a headteacher, said that, at her school, the ratio of female to male students taking A levels was higher in biology, science and maths, but this was not the case in physics.
She said that the percentage of female students in A-level physics classes was 16 per cent, compared to 84 per cent male.
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When asked by the committee why this might be the case, Ms Birbalsingh said: “From my own knowledge of these things, physics isn’t something that girls tend to fancy, they don’t want to do it, they don’t like it.”
Ms Birbalsingh said that female students did not make decisions about not wanting to do the subject because they “didn’t have a good physics teacher”.
When she was questioned further on the reasons behind the stark ratios, she said she thought there was “a lot of hard maths”, which she thought girls “would rather not do”.
She added that this wasn’t to “say that there isn’t hard stuff to do in biology and chemistry”.
When asked why girls would not want to do “hard maths”, as opposed to boys, the social mobility tsar claimed “the research generally say that’s just a natural thing”.
But she said she couldn’t say, because she is “not an expert”.
The comments have sparked backlash on social media.
Professor Cath Noakes tweeted that “we need to show everyone that throughout education all options are open and there are no gender differences in being able to do mathematical studies”.
Professor Noakes added that “society conditions so many to believe that they can’t or shouldn’t do something”.
Meanwhile, David K Smith, professor of chemistry at the University of York, branded the comments “completely sexist”.
The UK govt's 'Social Mobility Commission Chair' completely sexist view on why she thinks fewer girls do Physics. She goes on to say she does not want to encourage more girls to do it, and thinks it's absolutely fine that only 16% of Physics students are female. #WomeninSTEMhttps://t.co/oos1otPwMs
Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said Ms Birbalsingh should apologise for her comments and that the government “must finally step up to the plate and act”.
The MP said that “stories like this are all too common nowadays”. She also criticised the conservatives for “dragging their feet”, saying they had “failed to challenge the culture of misogyny and unconscious biases in our education system for years”.
Ms Wilson added: “Every child deserves the chance to thrive and follow their passions during their time at school. However, without a dramatic culture shift, so many young women will be continually undervalued and demotivated.
“We need new measures to challenge these biases, backed up by legislation, and Katharine Birbalsingh should apologise for her remarks.”
Ms Birbalsingh also spoke about concerns around the difficulties of finding “good teachers” in maths and science.
She pointed out that successive governments have struggled with subject shortages in science and maths.
“I think one of the things that we forget is that, if the teaching of science, for instance, is poor in schools, then you don’t have that many children, whatever their background, who go on to study science.”
She added that “in the end, you don’t get them any teachers because there aren’t enough people doing science full stop”.
