A Boost in the Female Element at Smith Science Center

By Cassidy Peterson
Staff writer
Email: thehutchinsoncollegian@gmail.com

When walking through the hallways of the Smith Science Center, one may notice a predominantly female population. A building that used to house courses for primarily male professions is now beginning to see the female population surpassing the men.

One class that has seen an uptick in females in the last 10 years is spring semester Physics I. 

In 2015, the physics class was made up of 14 males and four females and now in 2025, the class contains seven females and four males. 2021 was the first year Physics I saw a class made up of primarily females, and since then males have been outnumbered in the class. 

Another course that has seen a change in population is Organic Chemistry II, although the ratio of females to males have varied the last 10 years, 16 more females have taken the class than males in the last 10 years. This semester, Organic Chemistry II is an all female class of five students. 

Katie Ponce, a Lewis sophomore, reflects on the science courses she has taken and what the ratio of males to females has been like saying, “I would say there has been about a 1:9 male to female ratio in almost all of my courses.”

Ponce is a pre-pharmacy major who is taking Organic Chemistry II, and has taken various science classes such as Biology I, Physics I, Chemistry II, and more. 

Emily Malecki, a HutchCC junior from Hutchinson on a pre-medical track, is enrolled in Physics II and Organic Chemistry II and both classes contain only females.

Ariana Hubbard, another HutchCC sophomore from Liberal, is enrolled in Microbiology and Organic Chemistry II and says her courses overall have had a female to male ratio of 5:2. All three students agreed that there were very few males in all of the science courses they have taken.

One observation that can be made after attending science classes and spending time in the science building is that biology and chemistry related courses tend to contain more females. 

Whilst there are still dominantly male courses when they are related to engineering and computer science. Women are beginning to outnumber males in most science classes at HutchCC, but they are most often going into a healthcare field. Courses like Engineering Physics, Statics, and more are still predominantly male.

According to the American Association of University of Women, women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) make up 46% of Biological Sciences, but only 16.5% of Engineers and Architects. Women constitute 34% of the STEM workforce.

Although these numbers may sound low, women have actually made strides in the last 55 years. According to the United States Census Bureau, in 1970 women only comprised 8% of the STEM field. 

Although it is an ongoing process, one thing is for certain, that HutchCC’s very own Smith Science Center is seeing more and more females walk through its halls and go on to be the next generation of doctors, engineers, scientists, and more.

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