Idiocy of the week: EU's "Science: It's A Girl Thing" Video

June 29, 2012

The blogosphere has been humming over the past few days about a video created by the European Union that was supposed to encourage women to pursue careers in science and technical fields. The original video caught so much criticism for being offensive and sexist that it was taken down after a few days. But of course, in the age of the Internet, someone mirrored the video before it disappeared. I would love to know who at the EU thought this video was a great idea:

The reaction was immediate. As of this writing, 232 largely negative comments at the HuffPost: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/22/science-its-a-girl-thing-_n_1620235.html

Purdue University even put out a press release about the video: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/general/2012/120628T-HollowayVideo.html

All I can say is that if I was going to do a video about encouraging women to pursue technical careers, it wouldn't look anything like the EU's efforts.

About the Author

Lee Teschler

Editor

Leland was Editor-in-Chief of Machine Design. He has 34 years of Service and holds a B.S. Engineering from the University of Michigan, a B.S. Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan;, and a MBA from Cleveland State University. Prior to joining Penton, Lee worked as a Communications design engineer for the U.S. Government.