PacSci should open up their approach to addressing underrepresentation by uplifting boys too
Note: We are writing a letter to Will Daugherty, the CEO and President of the Pacific Science Center. We will ask people to join us in submitting the letter to Mr. Daugherty and other high-level decision-makers at the organization.
With the rationale of addressing underrepresentation in STEM fields, the Pacific Science Center will run 15 “girls focused” summer camps this year. This will mark at least their fourth consecutive summer of offering the choice of single-sex learning environments to girls and their parents.
It is a problem when girls feel unwelcome in any realm of science, technology, engineering, or math, and we trust that girls who have enrolled in PacSci’s “girls focused” offerings have benefitted.
The Pacific Science Center runs many summer camps, including ones that concentrate on fields of science in which males are underrepresented — both among college students and in the U.S. labor force.
Starting this year, the nonprofit educational organization should designate as “boys focused” one of the 149 summer camp sessions they will carry out for students in grades 2 through 8 — in tandem with the 15 camp sessions they have designated as “girls focused”. (In 2021 they switched the designation from “girls only” to “girls focused”; the function remains the same.)
Located in Seattle, the Pacific Science Center has operating revenues and support in excess of $10 million annually. On their 2020-2021 Form 990, they reported receiving $5.7 million in government grants. Our work in prior years alongside Global Initiative for Boys and Men highlighting PacSci’s discrimination against boys received coverage by KIRO 7 News, Seattle Weekly and Bellevue Reporter.
Why not have a ‘boys focused’ veterinarian camp?
The Pacific Science Center is slated to offer four sessions of their “Get Set to Be a Vet” camp between June and August. Here is the camp’s description:
In a previous article “Summer of Discrimination Against Boys Begins at Pacific Science Center,” we pointed out that PacSci offered a “girls focused” veterinarian camp in 2021, despite women already making up 80% of students in U.S. colleges of veterinary medicine.
This upcoming summer, all four of Pacific Science Center’s “Get Set to Be a Vet” camps are slated to be co-ed. Recognizing that males are severely underrepresented in the veterinary sciences, PacSci now should go a step further by designating one of the four camp sessions as “boys focused”. This would be a step toward encouraging more gender diversity in the veterinary sciences and toward offering boys the same opportunities as girls — and for the same reason.
Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine is the only AVMA-accredited veterinary college in Washington. Over three-quarters of students enrolled in their degree programs are women. Young women currently outnumber young men 4 to 1 in U.S. colleges of veterinary medicine, and women were 85% of applicants to the class of 2026 at those colleges.
In the American workforce, women are:
- 70% of veterinarians [Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]
- 86% of veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers
- 88% of veterinary technologists and technicians
According to an article at PetVetMagazine.com, “A study out of the Department of Sociology at Southern Methodist University suggests that potential male applicants may be deterred from applying [to U.S. colleges of veterinary medicine] after seeing the number of women applying and enrolling.”
Veterinary medicine is not the only scientific field in which males are underrepresented. Here’s another example: Two-thirds of college degrees in the fields of biological and biomedical sciences are conferred to women. Since 2019 slightly more women than men have been enrolled in U.S. medical schools.
Exercising critical thinking about representation
Pacific Science Center’s mission is to “ignite curiosity in every child and fuel a passion for discovery, experimentation, and critical thinking in all of us.” Critical thinking on the issue of gender-related underrepresentation in STEM requires recognizing that the presence of male-dominated scientific fields coexists with the presence of female-dominated fields.
Science education institutions like Pacific Science Center that want to address underrepresentation should implement their affirmative action measures without bias. Is it appropriate for efforts toward gender equity and equality to focus solely — and with no end in sight — on closing female gender gaps, while ignoring male gender gaps?
PacSci has previously denied allegations of gender-based discrimination saying “we would never, and have never, excluded a boy from participating in [our girls focused camps], should they have the interest.” This is absurd. It also misses the point that they could remedy their anti-boy discrimination by offering boys what they offer to girls — the option of a single-sex learning environment.
Boys are behind in education
Pacific Science Center’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status is based on their position as an educational organization. In Washington, there are wide gender gaps at all levels of education, with boys and men trailing girls and women. A bill before legislators in Olympia, HB 1270, would establish a Washington State Commission on Boys and Men, and it instructs the commission to focus on the education of males as the first of its five focus areas.
Pacific Science Center could be part of the solution to the male education gap. Instead, it appears they are ignoring it, and their plan is to indefinitely offer special privileges to girls. There is no evidence that girls in this state are underserved, per se, when it comes to scientific education. Schools across Washington state offer equal opportunities for girls and boys to learn all scientific subjects (they legally must do so).
We hope that Pacific Science Center will agree that designating a single one of their 2023 summer camps as “boys focused” would bring them into closer alignment with their professed values:
“We prioritize inclusion, diversity, equity, and access in everything we do.”
– Pacific Science Center
See related: King County Parks Department Promotes No-Males-Allowed ‘Women’s Walks’ Events