TORONTO, March 16, 2001 -- Canadian scientist and engineer Monique Frize, holder of the joint NSERC/Nortel Chair for Women in Science and Engineering, says progress has been made, but the breakthrough needed to achieve a critical mass of women in science and engineering will only come with structural social change.

Frize will present her latest findings on the subject at York University on Tuesday, March 20 as part of The Second X: Women in Contemporary Science lecture series sponsored by Bethune College. She says new information shows girls’ performance in mathematics is superior to boys, and while there are now fair numbers of women in undergraduate and graduate programs, men continue to comprise the vast majority of senior posts.

"Women now make up about 20 per cent of the science and engineering professions in Canada and seem to be holding at that level, although there have been sharp declines in the computer sciences," says Frize. "To reach a critical mass of 35 to 40 per cent, we will have to address the more subtle, cultural and environmental hurdles women and girls still face."

Frize has been gathering and analyzing data on the subject for the past 12 years. She says recent research shows that parents, teachers and counselors continue unwittingly to stimulate boys more than girls in the study of math and sciences. "Boys tend to be overconfident and have to be taught to work harder in order to do better, whereas girls excel, but need more encouragement to overcome their lack of confidence."

Frize says it is time to look closer at school curricula and address the gender bias built into society’s expectations of women in the professions and industry. She will recommend ways for parents and teachers to encourage children of both sexes in math and science, and successful strategies for universities to recruit and retain more women in these fields.

Frize, who distinguished herself as a research engineer in the field of medical informatics, was the first Canadian woman to graduate with a B.Sc in engineering, from the University of Ottawa, and the second to be awarded a fellowship at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, UK. She obtained her doctorate in the Netherlands. Since the 1989 shooting death of 14 women engineering students from the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, she has made it her personal mission to recruit 1,000 women for each of the students who died. Now, 11 years later, there are about 15,000 new women engineers in Canada.

The NSERC/Nortel Joint Chair for Women in Science and Engineering in Ontario was established at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University in 1997 to increase the participation of women in science and engineering education programs and the workplace. Frize is the first chairholder. She will present from 4-6 p.m. in room 320, Bethune College, York University, Keele Campus, 4700 Keele St.

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For further information, please contact:

Prof. Bernard Lightman
Dept. of Humanities
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22028
lightman@yorku.ca

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
YU/030/01