Numerous efforts are underway to interest girls and women in STEM fields. | Unsplash photo by Dan Cristian Pădureț.
Yesterday, we interviewed Cassie Leonard, one of the authors of a new book, Beyond the Pipeline, which says that women are being pushed out of STEM careers. Today, we look at efforts to increase involvement in those fields.
What you probably already know: Though the numbers are increasing, women are dramatically underrepresented in STEM fields, making up just 35% of the workforce. Only around 20% of engineering or computer science majors are women. There are, however, numerous practical efforts underway to change that. One is at the University of Denver, where three professors are researching why it’s so important to get girls interested in science early in life. Another comes from the Society of Women Engineers, a trade group examining myths and realities, including the widely held perception that bias against women in STEM no longer exists. At Virginia Tech University, associate professor Christina DiMarino is also emphasizing the importance of engaging younger generations.
Why? “STEM career environments that have been cultivated by men over generations have struggled to adapt to be more inclusive for women and other underrepresented individuals,” DiMarino said. “There have been strong pushes for increasing diversity but cultivating that representative community is going to take time.” One way to start, she notes, is with younger generations, which leads to equitable opportunities in both academic and workplace settings. At the University of Denver, faculty members Jennifer Hoffman, Shannon Murphy and Robin Tinghitella co-host science summer camps for middle-school girls, allowing them to study the campers’ relationship to science. Murphy said on the school’s RadioEd podcast that she was one of only four girls in her senior honors chemistry class in high school, and that they often did projects together without the involvement of boys. “That shouldn’t have happened.”
What it means: In their paper “Stem Summer Camp for Girls Positively Affects Self-Efficacy,” Hoffman, Murphy and Tinghitella (along with E. Dale Broder and Kirsten J. Fetrow) note that informal learning (time not spent in school) is an important strategy for increasing engagement. “Notably, out-of-school time programs also provide opportunities for students to engage in STEM without fear of failure, offer a community of mentors, and allow families to become more involved in student learning,” they write. “One pernicious societal construct that may constrain possibilities in STEM is the stereotype that women are not as competent as men.”
What happens now? The slow but steady increase in women in STEM can create the perception that gender equity has been achieved. It hasn’t. A survey cited by the Society of Women Engineers found that half of women in STEM jobs say they’ve experienced workplace discrimination, and nearly a third say they were treated as if they weren’t competent. Understanding those realities is a major step toward removing barriers. “Women will hear things like, ‘You’re so good with people: You should go into HR,’” said Susan Colantuno, an author, speaker and founder of several leadership organizations for women who recently discussed these and other issues on a Society of Women Engineers podcast called Diverse. “I always say to women: ‘You’re so good with people: Strive to become the CEO!’”
— Story by Rob Smith
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