如果你希望從事編程和外科醫生的女性人數跟男性差不多，那么，好消息來了：新近調查顯示，小學女生比男生更有興趣從事STEM（科學、技術、工程、數學）領域的職業。

而且，過去25年來，男孩子們的理想工作相對穩定，而小女孩希望從事的職業卻越發高端，也越來越有抱負。

在1989年，英國期刊British Journal of Guidance and Counseling曾發表一項調查結果稱，11歲的男孩長大后最想當運動員、服役軍人或者工程師。而Fatherly發布的一項針對11歲以下孩子的最新調查顯示，男孩希望從事的職業大致未變，最受歡迎的仍是職業運動員，其次是消防員和工程師。Fatherly是主要用戶群是2000年之后初為人父者。

1989年的調查顯示，當時的女孩希望長大后做教師、護士、空乘、秘書和美發師。而根據Fatherly的最新調查，最受女孩歡迎的理想職業是醫生，其次是教師和科學家。

Some good news for those who hope to someday live in a world where women coders and surgeons are as plentiful as their male counterparts: Today’s elementary school girls are actually more interested in pursuing a STEM career than their male classmates are.

What’s more, while young boys’ ideal jobs have stayed relatively consistent over the past quarter century, young girls career dreams have grown loftier and more ambitious.

Back in 1989, a study published in the British Journal of Guidance and Counseling found that 11-year-old boys were most interested in becoming an athlete, a service member, or an engineer. Now, a new survey of children 10 and younger, released byFatherly, a site for millennial dads, found that boys’ career dreams have stayed relatively stable. Pro athlete once again came in at No. 1, followed by firefighter and engineer.

In the 1989 study, girls said they aspired to be teachers, nurses, flight attendants, secretaries and hairdressers. In the Fatherly survey, though, girls’ No. 1 pick was doctor, followed by teacher and scientist.

還有一點值得注意：總體而言，女孩比男孩更傾向于對STEM領域的工作感興趣。41%的受訪女孩對科技領域職業表示感興趣，對同領域感興趣的受訪男孩比例為32%。

Fatherly的聯合創始人西蒙?艾薩克認為，女孩對科技業工作更感興趣固然可喜，但性別平等事業的進步空間仍然存在。他說：“更多女孩對STEM領域感興趣確實令人欣慰，具體來說主要是醫療保健和科技方面。但如果仔細觀察目前1歲到10歲年齡段的孩子就會發現，女孩投身于工程、電腦編程等其他科技領域，還有很長的路要走。”

最近，其他一些研究也得出了類似結論，其中包括谷歌和蓋洛普咨詢公司的聯合調查，以及經合組織的一項研究。這些研究都發現，和男孩相比，女孩從事計算機和工程領域工作的幾率要小一些。

艾薩克指出：“雖然我們一直說，現在的孩子們是逐漸擺脫傳統性別角色的一代，性別平等意識比之前任何一代都強烈。但具體到影響到孩子們的職業傾向上，性別平等的進步并沒那么明顯。”

艾薩克還說，他之所以決定投身這項的研究，是為了更好地理解當今世界的偶像文化。如今，偶像分布的領域十分廣泛，從美國馳名娛樂圈和體育界的卡戴珊家族、Facebook創始人兼首席執行官馬克?扎克伯格，到以爭取婦女接受教育權利聞名的巴基斯坦少女馬拉拉?優素福?扎伊，正是他們在塑造新一代學生的職業觀。

哈佛大學創新實驗室的校聘專家、《創造創新者：改變世界的年輕人是如何出現的》一書作者托尼?瓦格納透露：“通過在小學階段的調查，我們發現孩子們樹立志向時常常受到媒體內容的影響。”

瓦格納稱，媒體內容中的性別規范已經開始改變，尤其是在塑造醫學和科學領域的女性形象時。他相信媒體的轉變與年輕女孩對相關領域興趣增加并非巧合。與此同時，在工程和計算機等等女孩從來興趣寥寥的領域，媒體中相應的人物形象幾乎沒變化。

瓦格納還透露，研究發現女孩更感興趣的是讓人感覺有機會與他人直接接觸的職業，比如醫學和教育。

“女孩們并不清楚的是，許多工程學和其他STEM領域的工作也是緊緊圍繞著人展開的。問題在于怎么教她們理解這點。”瓦格納指出。

他還說，媒體中的程序員和工程師經常是粘著電腦屏幕工作數小時，殊不知這樣只會加深既有印象。“當你開始將工程學看作設計問題，領悟到工程可以解決人類的切身問題，你就可以抓住所有學生的注意力，特別是女生，你會發現她們會比之前積極得多。”（財富中文網）

譯者：Pessy

校對：夏林

Also notable: Overall, girls were more likely to say they were interested in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) job than their male counterparts. Indeed, 41% of girls expressed interest in technical career, vs. 32% of boys.

Yet while girls’ increased interest in scientific careers is clearly something to celebrate, there is still progress to be made, says Simon Isaacs, the co-founder of Fatherly. “We can celebrate the girls’ focus on STEM, which is largely focused towards healthcare and the sciences, but if we look at ages 1 through 10 right now, we still have a long way to go with regards to getting girls involved in engineering, computer programming and other tech fields.”

Other recent studies, including one by Google and Gallup and another by the OECD, similarly found that American girls believe they are relatively unlikely to end up in a career that requires computer science or engineering skills.

“Even as we talk about being a generation that is growing up more gender-non-conformist than any other generation, we aren’t necessarily seeing that translate into what [kids] want to be,” said Isaacs.

Isaacs adds that he decided to pursue this research to better understand how today’s culture of role models—who are as diverse as the Kardashians, Mark Zuckerberg, and Malala Yousafzai are shaping the next generation of students’ career ambitions.

“What we find at the elementary level is that kids are often basing their aspirations on whatever they’ve been exposed to in the media,” said Tony Wagner, an expert in residence at Harvard University’s Innovation Lab and author of Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World.

Wagner adds that gender norms portrayed in the media have begun to change, specifically with regards to female characters in medicine and science. He believes it’s no coincidence that those the fields are now seeing greater interest from young girls. The gender depictions, however, remain relatively unchanged in the fields of engineering and computer science, where school-aged girls have traditionally expressed less interest.

Wagner adds that in his research he has found that girls are more interested in careers that are portrayed as having a direct human connection, like medicine and education.

“What they don’t understand is that much of engineering, and other STEM work, is profoundly human-centered. The problem lies in how it’s taught,” he said, adding that depictions of coders and engineers spending hours on end glued to a computer screen only reinforce that perception. “When you begin to understand engineering as a design problem, as meant to solve real human problems, you immediately engage all students, and particularly women, far more actively than you would otherwise.”