Creating a Future Where Girls Feel Empowered: The Importance of Providing Access to Equal Education and Academic Resources to Encourage Young Girls to Pursue Engineering

“You are going to have to go to another building or floor to find a women’s bathroom. They only have men’s bathrooms on this floor because there were not a lot of female engineers when this building was built.” I was told this during my first week of school at the University of Southern California when I was in an engineering building. USC has plenty of funding to create a women’s bathroom on every floor or at least turn the men’s rooms into gender-neutral ones. Unfortunately, situations like these for women in engineering are not rare. These differences in resources also exist in childhood years. From a young age, girls are often gifted Barbie dolls and princess dresses, but they were never gifted construction toys because “those were for boys,” ultimately leading to the belief that girls are not fit for engineering. This belief is implemented in education and the engineering workplace as women are told, “Engineering is a man’s field.” Debbie Sterling voices how crucial it is for girls to have access to construction toys as a kid to create interest in engineering. Although this is true, she fails to mention that exposure to engineering at school is more important because of how many years take place in educational environments and how impactful those years are.

Engineers create everything, and since half of the world is women, half of the input should be women. Sterling explains that engineers are making groundbreaking discoveries and will only get better with the female perspective, and she could not be more correct. A diverse group is always better than a group that is not. A diverse group allows for different ideas to be explored and for all communities to be represented. If a group working on a project is all like-minded they they may struggle to find mistakes in their work or may fail to realize how their project is harmful to some groups. Women need to be included in engineering because they have every right to make an impact in the engineering world as men do.

The lack of women in engineering is because of stereotypes enforced at a young age. As a kid, Sterling wished she was told she was pretty instead of smart. Most girls shared those same values, while many boys were told to value intelligence. Those values are shaped by the adults who were also told to believe that as kids. The assumption that girls should care about looks instead of intelligence leads to girls not having access to any hands-on construction toys but rather dress-up toys. To be a successful engineer, spatial skills are important. Sterling reveals that “Kids who score better on spatial skills tests grew up playing with construction toys.” Since girls never had these toys, they were at an automatic disadvantage. Sterling was inspired to create an engineering toy for girls with a book about a girl engineer called Goldie Blocks to inspire young girls.

GoldieBlox has and will help inspire many young girls. While I agree that toys impact kids’ interests later in life, I argue that constant exposure to topics through teachings and activities beyond early childhood has a greater impact on the formation of interests. This was not stressed enough in Sterling’s TED Talk. Childhood toys are a small portion of our life and educational years take up a greater portion. The Genius of Play commissioned a survey that looked at factors that influenced adults’ careers, “…with 32% reporting the toys they played with as a child influenced their career path. Other factors ranged from the activities (sports, clubs, etc.) they participated in (50%)….” There is no doubt that toys are impactful, but considering about 15% of our lives are spent in school, and 50% of adults say the activities they participated in influenced their career path, including engineering curriculum and extracurriculars, are necessary to encourage kids to pursue it. Since activities have a more significant impact compared to toys, girls need to have access to engineering activities to be inspired to study engineering. However, the most efficient way to create involvement in those activities is to introduce engineering in school. It is also important to note that not all families can afford to buy their kids’ toys. CNBC reveals that “More than 12.5 million children in the U.S. live in poverty.” Financial disparities make equal education and equal resources available at school so important. No child should be held back from discovering their passions because of their financial background.

As explained before, it is vital to have a diverse group working together on projects so all viewpoints can be voiced, which is why equal educational opportunities are necessary. Many girls are either not introduced to engineering or are discouraged from pursuing it in school. Sterling explains that she did not know what engineering was until her high school teacher explained it to her during her senior year. Purdue University included in a paper about early education that “Overall, girls are five percent less likely to recall learning STEM concepts in elementary and middle school. Only 18 percent of girls learned STEM concepts between ages 5 and 12 while 23 percent of boys learned STEM concepts at the same age.” Microsoft also found that “only 60 percent of girls understand how STEM subjects are relevant for their personal and professional pursuit.” This shows that teachers need to do a better job at not only teaching STEM subjects to young girls but also encouraging them to see how it can influence them positively. The discrimination against girls regarding STEM subjects in schools is a reason many ignore. The American Association of University Women reveals that “teachers, who are predominantly women, often have math anxiety they pass onto girls, and they often grade girls harder for the same work and assume girls need to work harder to achieve the same level as boys.” To get more girls to explore engineering, teachers need to support young girls and expose them to engineering at a young age.

Equal education will help get more girls to study engineering, but creating inclusive spaces in educational environments and having hands-on activities to encourage girls to pursue engineering are just as important. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) explains, “While reaffirming that introducing girls to engineering in elementary and middle school is vital, the introduction needs to be followed up with more sustained engagement.” Extracurricular activities allow kids more freedom to explore their passions, but stereotypes travel from the classroom to after-school activities, and many girls are discouraged from doing STEM clubs. Purdue University explains how co-ed STEM activities can exclude girls and be discouraging, “Many girls tend to hang back in mixed gender groups, thereby losing the opportunity to actively participate in science, technology, or engineering.” To help heal the gap in the engineering field, creating clubs for girls in STEM could uplift girls and increase self-esteem levels. Creating these inclusive environments will allow hands-on experiences, no pressure, and girls to explore STEM. These activities will let girls develop a real passion for engineering and will help them develop skills that will help them later in life. It is also just as important to make the overall STEM field more inclusive so girls do not rely on these clubs to feel valued.

If girls are introduced to engineering with toys as kids, they need access to inclusive spaces and hands-on activities to be encouraged to pursue engineering. Creating environments where girls can feel comfortable studying whatever they want will help society move in the right direction. Everyone deserves to feel safe in learning environments, and there should be no fear of discrimination. Equal representation in the engineering field will lead to the creation of the best inventions.