Women in STEM and Pursuing your Dreams
Why are women in STEM less likely to speak up?
Of the variety of interests I have, STEM is definitely at the top of the list. In school I always found myself loving science and math classes a lot more than history and English because in science and math our work wasn’t subjective. There was a right and wrong and that couldn’t be determined by whether or not your teacher liked you — it was determined by thousands of years of research. STEM is constantly changing and supports the way our world works in every aspect of life — this is incredibly interesting for me.
I have always been aware of the gender stereotypes in the STEM world. I understood that there was misconception that men were more capable of success in STEM fields than women. However, it was never truly apparent and right in my face until this past year. I took an extension course in Biology this year, and being in the class opened my eyes to a lot of the discrepancies between gender in STEM.
Often in this class, our teacher would give us a reading for homework that we would discuss the next class or she would share presentation we would discuss in class. Once we did the main gist of reading and presenting, she asked us questions.
Almost every question was answered by a guy.
Most of them didn’t even have to think twice before raising their hand.
In fact it got so bad throughout the semester that every set of questions she would ask, it became routine for her to say “do any of my female identifying students have an answer?” while looking away from the side of the room where all the boys were raising their hands.
It wasn’t that we didn’t know the answers. In fact most of probably knew the answers and more. But often we felt like we would be wrong. It was intimidating to raise your hand and possibly be wrong in front of a group of boys who didn’t really think twice before raising their hands. It seemed like they were either super confident in their answers, or they simply didn’t feel as much fear when it came to being wrong.
Most classes, a girl or two would answer a question — normally one answered by choice and the other answered because our teacher called on them. Seeing a direct gap between male and female participation was eye opening for me.
Of course I had seen gender gaps in STEM fields before. Our robotics team and math team both have a minimal number of girls. Although it has been improving slightly over the past few years it’s always been an issue that I’ve noticed and many others around me have noticed as well.
So why are women less likely to speak up and participate in STEM fields? Besides from the standard patriarchal views that men are simply more talented and educated than women, I wanted to look into it more. After searching the web for just a few minutes, I learned some new things.
AAUW.org informed me that “Women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)”.
Let me repeat that again.
Women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
Women are often turned away from STEM fields because of a long line of history that deems women incapable of working, let alone working in such a complicated field of study. Although generations have evolved and so has the patriarchy, the fundamental beliefs that society was built on continue to prosper and limit opportunities for women and primarily BIPOC women.
This is clear when even in normal school classes, you see a gender gap between how often women feel compelled to participate. So why do I feel like women participate less in STEM? To me, it seems like because women are expected to fail in STEM fields, they have to even more work to prove they are perfect at it. It often feels like women always have a constant pressure to be correct because unless they are correct all the time, they aren’t deemed worthy enough to participate in the STEM field. Yet men can still make mistake after mistake after mistake and still be considered valuable additions to STEM.
It isn’t that case that men should be devalued in the STEM field, it’s rather the idea that women should be considered as worthy in the same ways that men are considered simply because they are equally capable of accomplishing things in any field.
There are still countless resources for women at any age to engage in the STEM field, thankfully. With moving efforts, hopefully they can dismantle the patriarchal views that influence a women’s chance at opportunity in STEM fields and many other fields as well.
For any women reading this, I hope you continue to pursue whatever it is you want to do despite defeat. You are amazing!
Thanks for reading!
Rashmi
