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Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

Date

Women in STEM: Where Are They?

When I walked into my introductory engineering course on the first day of my freshman

year, I saw only one other female. As I sat down next to her, I found myself

wonderingwondered if all my classes were going to be like this. As the week when on, I noticed

how few other females were in my classes. This was not reserved to only my engineering

courses, but my math and science ones as well. I dealt with stereotypes in high school, but this

was on a completely different level. Before, I was considered an oddball. Now, I’m just a rare

female in my STEM classes. At first, I struggled with finding my place in class and felt like I had

to keep proving myself for my classmates to take me seriously. I questioned my abilities and

wondered if my desire to study engineering was worth this daily struggle. As the semester

continued and I started getting comfortable with the males in my groups, I still wondered why

there were so many fewer girls. Many females get discouraged from these fields due to a

multitude of reasons.

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One reason that women do not choose to peruse STEM fields is the little support they

receive in elementary school. Boys tend to be more interested in STEM topics because they

already have a basic knowledge of these subjects. These exposures allow children’s curiosity to

grow while learning about new topics. Because young boys get these experiences more than

girls, they already have this knowledge. When they get older, girls, sometimes lacking in this

basic knowledge, feel inferior to their male peers and therefore do not explore their curiosity due

to a fear of ridicule and embarrassment. Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code,

says that girls should not be coddled by their parents. This prevents girls from learning things

for themselves. Saujani states that you need a parent “that encourages you to try new things.

You have to inspire girls to try things that they may not be good at” (qtd. Choney). Activities

that girls may not be the best at teaches them important life lessons that they may not understand

without these experiences. Girls are taught from a young age that they should be perfect, and

mistakes cause people to think less of you. This thought causes the fear girls have when doing

projects in school. Their male classmates already know how to complete the project so they let

them do the entire thing. This is so they are not viewed as lesser by their classmates.

Another factor in the lack of women in STEM is that teachers also have stereotypes when

it comes to females’ abilities in math and science classes. Catherine Riegle-Crumb, a professor

at the University of Texas at Austin, explains one of her studies on an NPR segment. This study

was to show how stereotypes about boys performing better in science and math than girls do

affect how teachers perceive their students and their abilities (qtd. Science Friday). Her study

had high school math teachers rate the abilities of their students. The teachers in this study were

more likely to rate the class as easy for the boys and difficult for the girls. When the grades were
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collected, the girls had similar test scores to the boys and higher overall grades in the class. The

teachers believed the boys had an easier time in the class based on biases they have heard their

entire lives even though the girls in the class were doing better overall.

Another reason women do not choose STEM fields is their lesser sense of belonging.

Many believe that the people who excel in these types of fields have a natural talent for it. Dr.

Jessi Smith, a psychology professor at Montana State University, explains how women feel

because they do not have this natural talent, they will have a harder time succeeding in this area.

People perceive exerting effort in order to complete a task as lacking natural talent. This causes

females to feel discouraged because they have to try harder than their male counterparts in order

to succeed. Smith completed multiple studies with STEM graduate students on their sense of

belonging, environment, and if their mentors emphasize natural ability. The first study showed

that women perceived themselves as putting in more effort and this decreased their sense of

belonging and motivation to continue their education in STEM majors. When women were told

that men put in the same amount of effort as they did, their sense of belonging and interest in

continuing their education increased significantly. These women also had less doubt about

themselves.

Some women do not choose STEM fields because they do not have role models as kids.

They do not see females succeeding in STEM related areas. The lack of exposure to women in

STEM related fields is a predominant reason for the lack of young girls studying these topics and

perusing these fields.

One of the first steps in planning a future is choosing a major to study in college. David

Card and A. Abigail Payne, with the National Bureau of Economic Research, collected data from

high schools and colleges about the difference in STEM readiness between genders. STEM
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readiness is how prepared a student is for the classes needed to obtain a STEM degree. Card and

Payne attribute the gender gap to STEM readiness. They found that females have almost the

same readiness as males and slightly higher average grades in the prerequisite math and science

classes. However, females and males tend to take different STEM related courses. A female is

more likely to take biology and chemistry courses while males are more likely to take physics

and calculus. The different classes require different skills to be successful. Only 14.5 percent of

females entering college are ready for STEM majors compared to 15.3 percent of males. This

high percentage has to do to the fact that more females go to college. If the entry was the same,

less than two percent are ready.

Once a female chooses a non-STEM major, it is extremely difficult for her to switch into

one. This has to do with the intensity of the STEM curriculum. STEM majors start major-

intensive courses beginning freshman year. If a student would want to change into the program,

they would be behind their classmates. This would cause a later graduation date or having to

take extra course just to keep up.

How does society affect young females’ perceptions of their intelligence?

Many people believe that the reason that more males are in STEM fields is that they are

better at math and science. Much research has gone into disproving this bias. Dr. Ming-Te

Wang, associate professor of psychology and education at the University of Pittsburgh School of

Education and research scientist at Learning Research and Development Center, explains the six

empirically supported factors that cause the female underrepresentation. One is cognitive ability

levels. Research shows that girls earn higher grades in math than boys. However, boys do

outscore girls on high-stake standardized assessments, the most being the SATs or ACTs. These

test scores are a primary factor of getting into college. Boys outscore girls about 4 to 1 on the
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math section of SATs. The lower math scores can be the reason why a girl does not believe she

can be successful in a math-intensive major. Another reason for the difference in math SAT

scores is the fact that each gender has different skills. Females do better on tasks that involve

object identity and location memory. These standardized assessments focus more on spatial

relations involving mental rotation tasks. Females are discouraged because they do not excel in

the skills tested upon.

What others think is also very important to developing girls. They can be judged on

things from what they wear to who their friends are. These can determine a person’s interest and

the classes one takes. A female may be discouraged by her friends to take a certain class, such as

an engineering course. She will fear what others will think about her and not pursue this

curiosity. Helen Chiang, general manager of Minecraft Franchise, recalls her experience with

dealing with her classmates’ judgments in high school (qtd. Choney). Chiang recalled being

considered “an oddball/nerd/geek” by her classmates for doing well in science and math classes.

It is hard to be an outlier, especially during middle and high school. She explains how she

switched schools to one that could challenge her academically. Having peers that had similar

interests and who excelled in the same subjects allowed her to want to continue her education in

a STEM field. She states how she would not have continued if she stayed at her old high school.

Because it was not considered popular, she would have perused other areas of interest.

What is being done today to lessen the gap?

Because research has shown that the gender gap starts at such a young age, many

programs have been created. One popular is Girls Who Code. Their mission is to close the

gender gap in technology by teaching girls programming. This is done in many different forms.

The most popular is specialized courses over the summer in major cities. These camps allow
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young girls to meet other girls with similar interests. These friendships encourage girls to

continue learning and pursuing this field. They also have books for kids for them to learn as well

as free lesson plans. These lessons include diverse women so the girls can see successful women

and have role models. Since 2012, Girls Who Code has served 185,000 girls (Girls Who Code).

Half of the girls who participate in these programs come from underrepresented groups. This

allows young girls the opportunity to create a better life for themselves.

Another company that is helping diminish the gender gap is Techbridge. They created a

program just for girls in low-income communities. Their goal is to have fair access to economic

opportunity and equality in STEM education (Techbridge Girls). It is believed that these girls

will have a hard time being successful in STEM because they are not given access to it. This

organization is trying to overcome racial biases and empower young girls so they can live a

successful life.

The severity of the gender gap in STEM is not something many people are aware of.

They also are not aware that a girl decides if she is good at STEM related topics before she

finished the second grade (“The Five Years in every UK Girl’s Life that Decides if She Will

Work in STEM). In order to build a better support system for the future generation, everyone

needs to understand the impact they have. As parents, people need to always support their

children’s passions and be someone they can look up to. Most importantly, teachers need to

realize the biases they have and try to make their classroom a nonjudging environment. An

educator never truly knows the impact they may have on a student, so it is their responsibility to

foster a place for their students to develop a confidence to peruse all learning and follow their

dreams.
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Works Cited

Card, David, and A. Abigail Payne. “High School Choices and the Gender Gap in STEM.”

NBER Working Paper Series, National Bureau of Economic Research, Sept. 2017,

https://www.nber.org/papers/w23769.pdf. Accessed 12 Feb. 2019.

Choney, Suzanne. “Why Do Girls Lose Interest in STEM? New Research has Some Answers –

and What We Can Do About it.” Microsoft, Microsoft, 13 Mar 2018,

https://news.microsoft.com/features/why-do-girls-lose-interest-in-stem-new-research-has-

some-answers-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2019.

Girls Who Code. Girls Who Code, 2019, https://girlswhocode.com/. Accessed 30 Mar. 2019.

Science Friday. Hosted by Flora Lichtman, National Public Radio, 16 Aug. 2013. Transcript.

https://www.npr.org/2013/08/16/212613885/the-stem-gender-gap. Accessed 9 Mar. 2019.

Smith, Jessi, et al. “When Trying Hard Isn’t Natural: Women’s Belonging with and Motivation

for Male-Dominated STEM Fields as a Function of Effort. Expenditure Concerns.”

General Action Portal, Harvard Kennedy School, 2 Feb. 2013,

http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/when-trying-hard-isn%E2%80%99t-natural-

women%E2%80%99s-belonging-and-motivation-male-dominated-stem-fields-function.

Accessed 5 Feb. 2019.

Techbridge Girls. Techbridge, 2019, https://techbridgegirls.org/. Accessed 30 Mar. 2019.

“The Five Years in every UK Girl’s Life that Decides if She Will Work in STEM.” Microsoft

News Centre UK, Microsoft, 1 Mar. 2017, https://news.microsoft.com/en-

gb/2017/03/01/40431/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2019.