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THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY

CHAPTER 6 • UNDERREPRESENTATION IN SCIENCE CAREERS 65

engineering has increased very slightly, while

the overall number of students graduating

with science degrees has declined. However,

if the status quo is only sustained, there will

be no substantial change in the representa-

tion of minority individuals in science.

It may be that the only way to make a sub-

stantial difference in the number of minority

individuals in science is to intervene in early

childhood. Particularly with underrepresent-

ed individuals, children must be given the

opportunity to envision a future beyond that

of their immediate circumstances. There is

not a child under six who is not intensely

interested in the way the world works.

Unfortunately, most children lose this interest

before they leave elementary school. If the

natural interest that every child has in science

could be maintained, many more children

from all backgrounds would enter science. In

addition, children seem to conclude very

early that there are some professions that are

not open to them. This is vividly illustrated

by a comment made by a 4-year-old to his

mother, a lawyer, after visiting with his aunts,

one a banker, one a scientist. “Oh, Mom,” he

said, “I can’t be a lawyer, I can’t be a banker,

and I can’t be a scientist, because those are

girls’ jobs!” Children need to see images of

people they can identify with as scientists to

give them a sense of possibility and the belief

that they belong in the mainstream world.

One highly successful program aimed at

elementary-aged minority children is the

Mother–Daughter Program in El Paso, Texas.

This program was established in 1986 by

Josefina Villamil Tinajero, Professor of

Bilingual Education and Acting Dean in the

College of Education at the University of

Texas at El Paso, who is also a child of a Texas

barrio. Tinajero began the program in an

attempt to reduce the high level of teen preg-

nancy, increase high school graduation rates,

and increase college enrollment which had

been essentially nonexistent, among children

growing up in the poor neighborhoods of El

Paso. In these families English is spoken poor-

ly if at all, there is no family history of higher

education, and both the children and their

parents have low expectations of themselves.

There are four key approaches instrumen-

tal to the success of the Mother–Daughter

Program. First, children and parents are

involved when the children are young.

Tinajero reasoned that intervention must

occur before the children enter adolescence,

when peer pressure and hormonal changes

make outside influence difficult, so the pro-

gram focuses on sixth graders. Second, at

least one parent is required to be heavily

involved in the program. Third, the program

provides experiences that instill children

with the feeling that they are both capable of

and entitled to a college education. Finally,

the program provides adult role models.

Potential program participants are identi-

fied by fifth grade teachers as those girls who

show great promise but are at risk because of

economic, family or neighborhood problems.

When a group of candidates is identified, an

invitation to participate in the Mother–

Daughter Program is extended to both moth-

Children seem to conclude very

early that there are some profes-

sions that are not open to them.

In the first cohort of 33 girls, 32

graduated from high school, 10

as honor students, and all of the

32 enrolled in college.