Sally Ride Quotes

One of the reasons I like working with schools is to try to convince women that they can be scientists and that science can be fun.

I feel it is now my duty to speak to young women, to encourage them to have careers and, particularly, careers in science.

I love math and science, and also, my mom is a doctor. I grew up not even having an awareness that women were not supposed to be good at science.

Success in math and the hard sciences, far from being a matter of gender, is almost entirely dependent on culture - a culture that teaches girls math isn't cool and no one will date them if they excel in physics.

When I was 14 my mum told my chemistry teacher she thought it was a waste of time girls going to university because they'd only just get married. I remember being so angry with her.

I find that with some girls, the words 'work' and 'education' have gotten a bad rap.

Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion, in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements: for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman, that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist us in the Attainment of it.

I've had young women come to me and say that before they watched 'Voyager' it didn't really occur to them that they could be successful in a higher position in the field of science; girls going to MIT, girls pursuing astrophysics with a view to a career in NASA.

It's a sad day when a woman being funny and interested in science is considered newsworthy.

Very few women are creative. I would not send a daughter of mine to study physics.

I think parents want their kids to have a strong, competitive education. The message [of my victory] was that includes a full set of science standards and that includes evolution.

Negative gender stereotypes related to girls' education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics begin as early as primary school and have the devastating effect of making them doubt their own potential.

If you look at other countries, you'll find lots of girls doing physics, engineering, and science. It's something to do with the kind of culture we have in the English-speaking world about what's appropriate for each of the two sexes.

The important thing is when you look at areas like physics and you realise that only one in five A-level students is a girl. We know it isn't about aptitude.

We still raise girls to look to other people for assurance they are attractive and smart, while boys are raised to determine their own value. Many girls are still made to feel it's not feminine to be good at science or math.

Given that many girls are indoctrinated to believe that they should be feminine and modest about their abilities, as well as brought up to assume that girls are not innately gifted at science or math, it is not surprising that so few can see themselves as successful computer scientists.

You can convert the teachers, and you can convert the kids, but if they go home saying they want to be a physicist, and the parents question why they would want to do that, then it makes it very difficult.

Aside from introducing and supporting legislation to help close the gender gap in STEM, I believe that shining the spotlight on female role models is one of the best ways we can break the gender stereotype.

Young women are not as likely to receive the encouragement they need from role models like teachers and parents. And they should be encouraged - studies show women are just as likely as men to win when they do run.

When I was in graduate school, I had a teacher who said to me, 'Women writers should marry somebody who thinks writing is cute. Because if they really realised what writing was, they would run a mile.'

I prefer to be known as an executive rather than a girl.

I was strongly encouraged by a science teacher who took an interest in me and presented me with a key to the laboratory to allow me to work whenever I wanted.

It is pure mythology that women cannot perform as well as men in science, engineering and mathematics. In my experience, the opposite is true: Women are often more adept and patient at untangling complex problems, multitasking, seeing the possibilities in new solutions and winning team support for collaborative action.

Over my life as a teacher, women have been too quiet. I'm quiet myself. I don't think I said three words the whole of graduate school.

People think anything done from a woman's perspective is only going to appeal to women.