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Date Posted: 12:30:41 07/19/06 Wed
Author: Islandgirl
Subject:

Women and science on TV

Why is it that on virtually every TV show where only one person has an advanced degree in the hard sciences is that character a woman? I'm thinking not only of Scully on XF, but also of Air Force Officer Samantha Carter on "Stargate: SG-1" and Abby Scuito on "NCIS" to name just a few.
The men on these shows generally have degrees in more liberal-arts type subjects like psychology, archaelogy, etc. Either that or they don't seem to have college degrees in *anything* but they are portrayed as simply being "street smart" or "intuitive" about figuring out things.
Obviously there are some shows -- such as the various CSI incarnations -- where virtually everybody presumably has a scientific background. But in shows where only one member of the team has an advanced degree in something like biochemistry or astrophysics, it's almost *always* a woman.
Isn't this sort of. . .backwards??
While more women than men graduate college nowadays, women generally tend to major in subjects like elementary education, history, English, psychology, etc. Men still make up the majority of grad students in fields like chemistry, physics and mathematics. Except, apparently, on TV.

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Replies:

Re: Women and science on TV -- CW, 22:04:08 07/24/06 Mon
- Re: Women and science on TV -- BDM, 17:19:42 07/27/06 Thu
  - ahh...not true -- CW, 20:42:03 07/27/06 Thu