Name: Verizon's Inspire Her Mind ad and the facts they didn't tell you
Uploaded: 2014-07-28T06:13:29.000Z
Duration: 5 min 3 s
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Do girls fall behind in science and engineering because our society tells them they should

Adverbs of degree

be "pretty" rather than "pretty brilliant?"

Well that's the message of a new Verizon campaign,

Now a lot of journalists found the ad enthralling. Both NBC and ABC deemed it "powerful." A Slate writer said it was "a blast of refreshing cool air." It

brought tears to the eyes of a reporter at Adweek. But so far, not one of these excited

reporters thought to check the facts. Here are just a few examples of dubious information

that concern the Factual Feminist. For example: "Confidence drops from 72% to 55% between

middle school and high school." What's the source? Verizon provides a list of references

via a link called "DIVE DEEPER INTO EACH OF OUR STATS." But the source, cited for the confidence

drop, is an internet info-graphic posted by someone associated with a website about online

engineering degree programs. And what does this confidence gap really mean? Does it refer

to confidence in math and science or overall self esteem? That is never explained and no

source is offered. Why is Verizon relying on some random, poorly sourced Internet graphic

for its research? Let's continue: According to the ad: "66% of 4th grade girls reported

that they like science and math1. But by college, only 18% of all engineering majors are female."

ABC deemed this finding "startling." Startling yes, but it's also deeply misleading. Engineering

is an outlier. Today girls earn 44% of college math degrees, 48 percent of chemistry degrees

and 61 percent of biology degrees. But why allow some inconvenient facts to get in the

way of a "powerful" shortchanged girl narrative? Suppose you said, "66 percent of 4th grade

girls like science and math, but by college, only 61 percent of all biology majors are

female" that doesn't quite do the trick. And what's the source for the 66 percent statistic?

I don't doubt its truth—but Verizon cites a post from the feminist blog JEZEBEL. The

facts behind the "Inspire Her Mind" campaign are a complete mess. And the deeper you dive,

the worse it gets. You might think, well even if the statistics are muddled, maybe there

is truth in the spirit of the video. But that would be wrong. In one pivotal scene, Samantha's

curiosity in marine biology is squelched by her father. From this scene, you would never

guess that today girls earn 64 percent of college degrees in marine biology. In another

segment, we see a slightly older Samantha appearing to study a poster announcing a science

fair—however she is using the display case glass as a mirror to put on her lip gloss.

The message is clear: we are crushing our daughters by insisting they be pretty and

lady like. Well, again there is a problem: girls are thriving at science fairs. In many

states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, they now outnumber boys at these fairs. They

are approaching parity with boys at the prestigious Intel Fair. And look what happened when Google

launched its first-ever science fair. The Factual Feminist applauds Verizon for encouraging

more girls to pursue careers in math and science, I want that too. But this ad is a lost opportunity.

Not only is it filled with phony data and misleading images--it also conveys the message

that science is masculine. Throughout the video, and in website materials conventional

girl culture (princesses, doll houses, make-up, pretty clothes) is shown as obstacles to girls'

science careers. That's a terrible message. Girls can be girly as well as smart, ambitious

and formidable scientists. My advice to parents: expose your daughter to a wide range of activities

and career paths. Allow her to pursue fields that truly interest her. And, let her know

she can be both pretty and pretty brilliant. Well what do you think of the Verizon ad?

Should we be worried that more than 3 million people have watched it, or that journalists

failed to notice that it was manipulative propaganda? Please leave comments below. This

is the last video for this season. We will begin again in September! If you subscribe

to the series and follow me on Twitter, we'll alert you when the next video is posted. And

remember: Check your facts, not your privilege!