'Can Women Science Teachers Be Role Models?': Challenging Gender Stereotypes of Science and Masculinity

Despite the existing gender stereotypes associated with science and masculinity, there are some women teachers in secondary co-education schools in Bangladesh who are going against the grain by taking up a profession in the science field. This research is an attempt to make visible the lived gendered experiences of women science teachers both in urban and semi-urban areas of Bangladesh. In addition attempts, to shed new light on the debate of masculinity of science and the strategies women teachers‟ use to deal with the embedded gender ideologies to become role models. By using a feminist standpoint approach, this research unveils married and unmarried women science teachers‟ struggle with gender structures in schools, families and communities. The findings of this empirical study revealed that, in a classic patriarchal society, it is much difficult for women science teachers to be role models because of their socially prescribed gender-roles, symbolic representation, gender- specific norms and constraints in their institutions. Despite these constraints the teachers have the potential to be role models and they are coping by making different strategic choices to sustain their interest in the science. This study contributes perspectives on how to overcome the fabricated myth of girls‟ intrinsic incompatibility with science.