STEM jobs are becoming more and more important in the world, but the jobs are not being equally filled by men and women. In fact, males are continuing to outnumber females in STEM jobs. According to livescience.com, "Though women now receive half the doctorates in science and engineering in the United States, they make up only 21 percent of full science professors and a measly 5 percent of full engineering professors." These are very disturbing statistics. Today in 2014, we feel that we are moving more toward gender equality and this is certainly an area were we need to do more work to improve.
It seems fair to ask: if STEM education is so important to the future, why are there more males in these fields than females? Unfortunately, there are many roadblocks standing in the way of women getting the opportunity to succeed in a career in science. Biases against women in science are deeply rooted cultural norms and stereotypical female gender roles. Many women will finish school and complete degrees in STEM fields, but they will not continue to pursue careers in these fields. You can find an article below that talks more about one individual woman's journey through science in the academic world and why she chose not to continue on the career path. [See Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?] In the article, she talks about being tired of having to continue to prove herself to her male counterparts and not feeling supported by her advisers. She states "Mostly, though, I didn't go on in physics because not a single professor — not even the adviser who supervised my senior thesis — encouraged me to go to graduate school. Certain this meant I wasn't talented enough to succeed in physics, I left the rough draft of my senior thesis outside my adviser’s door and slunk away in shame. Pained by the dream I had failed to achieve, I locked my textbooks, lab reports and problem sets in my father’s army footlocker and turned my back on physics and math forever." This is where the big problem lies. We need to start encouraging girls and reassuring them that they can be just as successful in these fields as their male counterparts. We have a responsibility to help them believe in themselves and to help them achieve their full potential. Stanford University neurobiologist Jennifer Raymond said "By enabling more women to succeed, despite the existence of unconscious bias, this will gradually eliminate the stereotype of the successful scientist as male, which is the root of gender bias,". |
"Though women now receive half the doctorates in science and engineering in the United States, they make up only 21 percent of full science professors and a measly 5 percent of full engineering professors."
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer "By enabling more women to succeed, despite the existence of unconscious bias, this will gradually eliminate the stereotype of the successful scientist as male, which is the root of gender bias,"
Stanford University neurobiologist Jennifer Raymond At the end of four years, I was exhausted by all the lonely hours I spent catching up to my classmates, hiding my insecurities, struggling to do my problem sets while the boys worked in teams to finish theirs. I was tired of dressing one way to be taken seriously as a scientist while dressing another to feel feminine.
Eileen Pollack |