STEM Women: We Need More

The term STEM is an abbreviation that stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (science, technology, engineering and mathematics ), and more STEM women are needed.

In recent years, it has become something of a trend due to the great demand for professionals in these areas. As in other areas, however, STEM women will still have many obstacles to overcome.

There is still far too much inequality between STEM men and STEM women.

Are there really fewer STEM women?

Recently, Professor Martin W. Bauer from the Department of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences at the London School of Economics (LSE) conducted a study. It was concluded that the lack of female role models in these areas is the reason why some girls find science unattractive.

According to Bauer, interest in STEM topics among girls between the ages of 11 and 12 is widespread. But it falls after the age of 15 years.

In addition, it does not improve when looking at higher education. Only one in three students in engineering education are women, while only one in five students in computer science is a woman.

In an analysis carried out by the countries belonging to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), it was found that even after receiving a degree in science / technology, only 43% of women ended up working as professionals in mathematics, physics or engineering, compared to 71% of the men who had studied these subjects.

The available data made it clear that 15-year-old girls are overtaking their male counterparts when it comes to reading skills. In terms of math, though, boys are ahead.

There are fewer girls than boys among those who get good grades in math  (10.6% of girls versus 14.8% of boys). The same goes for science (7.7% of girls versus 9.3% of boys).

In short, the conclusions are that  now is a very good time to develop motivational tactics. In a society that increasingly demands more professionals in technology, it is more important than ever to target the inclusion of STEM women.

A bit of inspiration

Led by the Ad Council a few years ago, the “She Can STEM” initiative aims to remove old paradigms. It was developed to motivate female students to overcome their prejudices and fears when it comes to science.

They have achieved this by showing how interesting these areas can be, among other things by showing seven excellent and successful STEM women.

These STEM women are:

• Lisa Seacat DeLuca, engineer at IBM.
• Tiera Fletcher, Engineer in Structural Analysis at Boeing.
• Maya Gupta, Scientific Researcher at Google.
• Danielle Merfeld, Director of Renewable Technology at General Electronics.
• Nicki Palmeer, director of network engineering at Verizon.
• Bonnie Ross, Director of Microsoft’s Halo Game Studio.
• Lucianne Walkowicz, astronomer at Adler Planetarium.

The future of STEM women

At present, there is a significant and active effort to promote STEM women for future jobs. According to the EU, however, there will be around 756,000 jobs in information, technology and communication by the year 2020.

In conclusion, we can perceive this information as reflecting the importance of initiatives such as “She Can STEM” to make talented women more visible in this field.

The Greek philosopher, Hypatia, the astronaut, Sally Ride, the primatologist, Jane Goodall, and the legendary Marie Curie are just a few notable individuals.

The roles that women can take on should not be limited in any way, and these new areas of development are eager to hire them.