Trump Keeps Girls Out of STEM

Ashley Hall in Charleston feels the federal patriarchy

Trump’s attacks on DEIA programs have rippled out to the Lowcountry. The prestigious Ashley Hall girls school has been partnering with Joint Base Charleston since 2017 to host an annual “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day,” now apparently prohibited because it would be too inclusive to encourage girls to pursue a career in STEM (not that there will be any STEM jobs after they annihilate all the federal funding for the sciences!).

While it may seem like an unintended consequence that (mostly) wealthy girls wouldn’t be able to have a day learning from federal employees about science careers, I’d say it fits right in with the MAGA patriarchy. Why put a girl through that much math to have her end up in a milkmaid dress having unlimited number of children anyway? Who has time for STEM when birth control isn’t available!

It wasn’t really that long ago that these same ideas about some kind of “natural” order of the sexes blocked girls and women from entering higher education at all. Most colleges and universities didn’t admit women in large numbers until the middle of the twentieth century, so these educational successes of American women are a fragile fact of only the last few generations (those of you lucky enough to attend our college president Anita Gustafson’s Women’s History Month lecture last year will remember her excellent analysis of women in higher education).

My great-grandmother, Beatrice Althea Smith Hooke, attended Ashley Hall. Born in 1901, she lived until the 1990s. I knew her as a child, and she was iron-willed: a woman, my mother tells me, who took no shit. Her independence was no doubt fostered at Ashley Hall, founded as one of the first schools in the South meant to prepare girls for college educations. Started in 1909 by Mary Vardrine McBee (descendant of one of the founders of Greenville), its mission from the beginning has been to “produce educated women who are independent, ethically responsible, and prepared to meet the challenges of society with confidence.” McBee, a graduate of Smith, quickly realized how underserved the women of the South were, and decided as a college student that she was going to help the girls of the region enter elite institutions. Since the founding, famous alums have included Barbara Bush and my dear colleague Kendra Hamilton, who serves on the Board and was among the first students to integrate the school (highly recommend her newsletter

Escaped from Cultivation

).

My great-grandmother Trixie standing in the back, we think at Ashley Hall in the 1910s.

While there is debate about whether all-girls education is ultimately better for society, it certainly seems a way to shield girls from the harassment and violence of sexist institutions. This week in WGST we discussed how the patriarchy shapes schools, and multiple women shared stories of harassment by boys in school, and justifications for sexual assault taught by male teachers. DEIA efforts to make schools safe spaces for girls and to close STEM achievement gaps stand to be obliterated by an administration that very clearly supports only the rights of elite, white, straight men.

I’m not sure how even the men will have access to education if this administration has its way and it really razes the Department of Education to the ground. If, like my great-grandmother Trixie, you want to take no shit, join us Monday for a protest in downtown Greenville (or look for your own local protest). We’ll also be convening tomorrow for our first Together Greenville meeting, join the group for event info. Keep calling your representatives, and keep getting invested in state and local races. I’m beyond thrilled to support Tina Belge for Greenville city council, an at-large seat she could use all our help to secure.