Paper

Carrie McClanahan

Comp 105

Prof. Darling

17 November 2014

Women in STEM

Science, technology, engineering, mathematics—these career fields are known as STEM. These fields have had a pattern of being largely dominated by males in the United States, and this is a pattern I would like to see change. There are already many organizations which have been created to encourage females to pursue these careers, including “Science Club for Girls,” “STEMinist,” and even a government policy as part of the Office of Science and Technology. I am making my own personal effort to increase the number of women in STEM careers by attempting to major in one myself. I am majoring in chemistry in order to one day become a chemist, a major that seems to make many of my peers shudder. I have experienced a feeling of exclusion almost every time I let others know I am a chemistry major. I was surprised to find that in my chemistry class I was the only one to admit to being a chemistry major. When I have told other students of my intended career path, they seem to question why I would take my education in this challenging direction. This causes me to inquire why STEM careers like chemistry are so intimidating. Surely they are a challenge, requiring detailed knowledge and a thorough understanding of the subjects. But these careers are necessary in order for our country to progress, and the difficulty of the subject should not be the reason there are voids in these important careers.

Statistics from the National  Science Foundation give evidence for the lack of women in  STEM careers. Overall, women take up only 27% of the Science and Engineering workforce. There is a particular void in engineering, computer sciences, and mathematical sciences. The NSF indicates that only 13% of engineers as a whole are women, and 25% of workers in mathematical and computer sciences are women (National Science Foundation n.pag.). These statistics point to a great issue in our nation regarding bias against women, and everyone should take responsibility to try and change it. As Grace Lee Boggs said in The Next American Revolution,  “At this point in the continuing evolution of our country and of the human race, we need to stop thinking of ourselves as victims and to recognize that we must each become a part of the solution because we are each a part of the problem” (Boggs 29). Women who are faced with the biases against females in STEM fields should not give up and think of themselves as helpless. Women, along with the rest of citizens, need to actively try to help a cause like this one, since everyone is a part of the problem and has the capability of making a positive difference.

STEM careers are crucial in our country and in each community. They are in-demand, higher income careers. According to Burning Glass Technologies research,

In 2013, there were 5.7 million total postings in STEM fields. Of those, 76%, or 4.4 million, require at least a bachelor’s degree, and 41%, or 2.3 million, are entry-level jobs requiring less than 2 years of experience. The average advertised salary for entry-level STEM jobs requiring a BA or higher is $66,123 compared to $52,299 for non-STEM jobs.(Real-Time n.pag.)

All of the fields of STEM have a focus on problem solving, innovation, and creativity. Chemistry and other scientific fields allow us to utilize beneficial products and improve the way we live our daily lives. Technology is a crucial field, since with today’s dependence on technology, there is also a greater expectation to improve it. Engineering can allow us to create better products, greater productivity, and a prospering economy and environment. Mathematics is the foundation for every field mentioned above. Women should be actively entering these careers because they are beneficial for the country and for women themselves. As the White House states in their Office of Science and Technology Policy, “women who work in science, technology, engineering, and math fields (STEM) earn on average 33 percent more than their counterparts in other fields” (Women in STEM n.pag.). This shows that a key to filling the wage gap between men and women could be more women taking part in STEM fields. The government’s website tells its initiative for more women to take part in these careers, imploring that these positions are important. They can also be beneficial in a woman’s life because by having one of these careers, one can know that they are taking part in a field that has the potential to change the world. By making a new discovery in one of these fields one could save millions, make millions, or change the way millions of people think about a certain subject. Our modern knowledge of our surroundings have been shaped by these workers who were unafraid to take on the challenging fields that pave the way to discovery.

A reason for women not joining STEM careers could be that there are not many well-known role models in these careers for girls to look up to. Another valid explanation is that there are negative connotations for those in STEM careers which may discourage women. There is an unattractive, socially awkward stereotyped image of those in these career fields that could be keeping girls from wanting to be future scientists, mathematicians, or engineers. For example, the Television show The Big Bang Theory reflects this image through their main characters who are portrayed as socially awkward scientists. One of the main characters had so much social anxiety with girls that he could not speak around them. This show also reflects that STEM careers are often stereotyped to be male careers, since women scientists were not included as prominent characters until season three. Women may not want to go into one of these fields because they are afraid of feeling excluded from the male majority. In order for women to venture into one of these career paths, they would have to overcome the stereotypes from those around them who only expect men in these positions or the general society would have to shed their biases.

The issue of women not going into these careers points to a larger issue in society, that women still are projected to not be equal to men. Girls grow up taking in this misconception that STEM careers are meant for men and women should go into other careers. Even the toys and books that girls are given can reflect this view. An example of this is the Barbie I Can Be a Computer Engineer book. In this book, Barbie is portrayed as incapable of doing any of the actual computer engineering and depends on her male friends to help her solve her computer issues. This kind of portrayal of women in children’s products may affect girls to make them think females do not have a part in STEM careers. The Guardian reported that Mattel, faced with the angry views of the representation in this book, began to modify their Barbie books to reflect more empowering views of women (Flood n.pag.). Companies need to follow Mattel’s example and try to assure that their products are encouraging towards girls so they do not grow up with biases.

Girls would be more interested in science, technology, engineering, and math if they were empowered through those in their community. There needs to be a greater representation of successful women who take part in these fields for girls to look up to. The biases against women going into STEM careers would be greatly aided if women already in these careers took action themselves. For example, women in each community could visit schools and talk to girls about how their careers are rewarding and exciting. Communities are responsible for making sure both genders feel they have the same chances in life to be in any career that interests them. Teenage girls making career decisions may have been prompted to think they are not interested in taking part in these careers because they have been obscurely discouraged through media and those around them in their community. They have not thought of these careers as real possibilities or something they would like, possibly because they have so little knowledge of what these careers even involve. Many people do not know that these careers often require a high degree of creativity and that they can be very exciting. Girls need to be educated on STEM careers and encouraged to have the confidence to know that they are capable. There needs to be more of a focus on representing the women workers in STEM and showing a more positive view of the fields themselves.

Another way women would be more encouraged to pursue STEM careers is through workplaces themselves. An article on GeekWire references a study from the Harvard Business Review which attributed the exiting of women from these fields to extreme work pressure, a hostile “macho culture,” and a lack of compensation. The study found that many women engineers left the field due to their conflicting family and work roles and the sexist attitude of those around them at their workplaces (Frank n.pag.). Workplaces that hire people in these fields should be more supportive to women by trying to have more of a female inclusion in their workforce. They should actively give women an equal opportunity and pay rate as the men that they hire. Once this happens, more women may feel that they are welcome to take these career paths without feeling excluded and afraid they would not be hired because of their gender. Workplaces should also be sure to compensate their female employees at an equal rate to males in these positions. Workplaces need to instruct their employees to be respectful to their co-employees, discouraging sexist attitudes and behaviors in order to make their employees feel comfortable. These workplaces need to adopt a more flexible schedule for those with external circumstances, such as offering paid leave and more free time outside of work that they can spend with their families. Since many women have roles outside of their work roles, workplaces need to understand this and not make it difficult for them to live their lives outside of work. 

As I have indicated, there are many ways more females would enter the STEM workforce and want to stay there. In order to change the way female STEM workers are represented and viewed, the general views of women in these careers would have to change to be more accepting. In order for women to start being treated with the same amount of respect as men in these careers, there needs to be a gradual change in the minds of both men and women. Both men and women need to view each other as equal in capabilities and intelligence. I believe this would cause more women to feel empowered to venture into careers which are unequally distributed with men, because they would feel more open and comfortable with themselves and with the other men in the career. Changing views takes time, as there is no easy fix to changing a trend which involves psychological perceptions. As Paul Rogat Loeb indicates in his book Soul of a Citizen, changing people’s perceptions does take a while and takes many people joined together to achieve the same goal. Even though the U.S. government is getting involved in this issue by encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers, we cannot expect the government to take care of this inherently psychological issue of bias by themselves. We still have the responsibility to help, stated Meredith Segal in Soul of a Citizen “You can never expect an elected official to do it all on their own, no matter how much you admire them or how hard you worked to help them win” (Loeb 81). Individual citizens can do so much to help the cause of gender inequality by just questioning the biases that keep women out of these fields. Women empowerment would be greatly raised if they were aided in knocking down the obstacles that face their working opportunities. There are extremely intelligent women who could give their own fresh perspective to these fields and make a great discovery in their respective field. It is not right for women to feel uncomfortable having one of these rewarding careers if they are interested in it. Women should feel they have the same opportunities in life as men in order for the U.S. to be a freer and more equal place. Women should not feel that their gender is a deciding factor in whether or not they can contribute to the important fields of STEM.

Works Cited

Boggs, Grace Lee, and Scott Kurashige. The next American Revolution Sustainable

Activism for the Twenty-first Century. 2nd ed. Berkeley: U of California, 

2012. Print. 5 Dec.  2014.

Flood, Alison. "Barbie Computer Engineer Story Withdrawn after Sexism Row." The

Guardian, 21 Nov. 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.

Frank, Blair Hanley. "Chart: This Is How Bad the Gender Gap Is at Tech 

Companies GeekWire." GeekWire, 5 Aug. 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.

Loeb, Paul Rogat. Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in Challenging times.

2nd Ed., Rev. and Updated ed. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2010. Print. 5

Dec. 2014.

"Real-Time Insight Into The Market For Entry-Level STEM Jobs." Burning Glass

Technologies, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.