More specifically, I am very interested in increasing female enrollment in STEM in my college due to the low enrollment in computer science and engineering classes. There are a significantly lower number of female community college students enrolled in the STEM field, especially in the areas of computer science, engineering, and technology. Per the US Census Bureau statistics, women comprise 48% of the total workforce but only make up 27% of computer workers, 24 % of STEM, and only 13% of engineers. This implies that many engineering products that influence our daily lives have been created without input from women, who make up a large portion of the population. Increased diversity in STEM occupations encourages creativity and innovation …show more content…
By targeting the number of enrolled female students at community colleges, we can increase the number of women college graduates and thus address the issue of the gender gap in the workforce. This would help achieve the overall goal of facilitating creativity and innovation by increasing diversity in STEM occupations. Any initiatives and programs designed for this purpose should also take into account possible etiologies of this gender discrepancy. Some well-known contributing factors to the lower number of female community college students enrolled in STEM courses include negative gender stereotypes regarding aptitude towards mathematics and science, and a decreased number of female faculty members in college and universities.
I am personally invested in looking for solutions to the question: how can we increase female community college enrollment in STEM and thereafter to decrease the gender gap in the workforce? In order to find these solutions, it is important to understand how the brain and mind function differently between students with gender and cultural differences in community college. I am fascinated with learning and applying a knowledge of both neuroscience and cognitive theory to improve teaching and learning. I am constantly investigating how and what I can do as a community college educator to improve the current gender gap in STEM classrooms and thereby the workforce. I believe
All though women in STEM face many challenges as a whole, a question being posed in this study is whether or not women in math and physics intensive studies face unique obstacles. Underrepresentation in STEM seems a stubborn fact of the matter, however, it is not even across the board. The number of women present in the life sciences (sciences such as biology, environmental studies, health care, etc.), both at the academic and professional level, is much higher than the number of women present in fields that focus heavily on math, physics, and engineering. More and more women are choosing to pursue post-secondary education and enter the specialized workforce; in 2010 the AAUW found “Women currently earn over half of all doctoral degrees
The force of societal stereotypes is a large part of this gap. Instead of joining STEM careers, the most common careers among women are secretaries, nurses, and elementary and middle school teachers (Mandell). This truly illustrates that when well-rounded, talented women have the choice, they are inclined to delve into the field in which society expects them to belong. In this way, the stereotype of women not being involved in STEM is forcing less women to be involved in these fields. The deficiency of women in technical fields, despite their well-roundedness and ability, can be directly related to unyielding cultural stereotypes that stigmatize women in supposedly masculine fields.
In a speech in February 2013 President Barak Obama said, “One of the things that I really strongly believe in is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science, and engineering. We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in those fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.” It been three years since President Obama has made that statement and the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and math as known as STEM majors is still a big problem today. The STEM workforce is crucial to Americas global competitiveness and groundbreaking capability. The people who work in the STEM field make up nearly half of the United
Some implications of this study are that women- only STEM programs can benefit women in general, but minorities in particular, and these kinds of programs should be studied and implemented to assure that women will get the help they need to succeed. The question that this study leaves unanswered, that Rosenthal, L., London, B., & Levy, S.R. (2011) answer, is: What explains this sense of belonging that women feel?
Ever since high school I have always been interested in going into research. I attended a magnet high school in south eastern Connecticut that was STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) based. I took advanced biomedical courses that gave me skills that no regular or private school in the area offered. The courses mostly focused on molecular biology and genetics which increased my interest in pursuing a major related to genetics. Even with my high interest in pursuing higher education and a career in the STEM field, it may prove a challenge for me as women are underrepresented in the STEM field. I participated in a program developed by one of my high school administrators to increase confidence and the number of women pursuing STEM
Like promoting after school activities such as, science and math club to young girls in school. This could be interesting because some say that, when it comes to schooling, that women have a higher attention span in the classroom than men. If having a focus just on girl’s schooling in STEM, it brings more commitment from the public. If you really think about it, in schools more girls actually pay attention then boys do in science. one reason to me is because they want to become nurses and doctors. Especially here at Iowa western where the Nursing program is mostly women, and mostly women are takin and passing intro to biology and human
Women in STEM are greatly underrepresented. STEM usually refers to an educational curriculum. Usually the curriculum focuses on science, engineering, technology, and math. The percentage of women in the STEM workforce has risen from seven percent in the seventies to twenty six percent in 2011. (U.S Department of Commerce)
In his article, “Does Gender Matter?”, Ben A. Barres writes about the apparent absence of women in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields. He starts out the article by informing the reader about a few of the hypotheses that aim to explain this difference in presence, hypotheses that Barres aims to disprove. Barres explains, and at a few points depicts with charts and graphs, the significance of the gap between the amount of white men in the STEM majors and fields of studies and the amount of women and minorities in these same areas. He tell the readers the misconceptions such as the idea that women are inferior in these fields are untrue, and the fact is that woman and minorities are discouraged from entering into these areas
STEM, also known as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, is the field that is advancing at a rapid rate. Within STEM, there are many occupations across the four fields. As the years go on, more and more people start to have a growing interest in STEM, but this can’t be said for women. Women almost take up half of the workforce, but when it comes to STEM, women only take about 24%, almost half of the women aren’t participating in STEM. The numbers continue to get worse. From 2000 - 2009, the numbers have remained at a constant 24%. At this rate, employers could potentially see a decline in women, but there have been efforts to change this rate (Beede et al par. 6). This could mean big problems for the world as more problems will arise and there’s nothing to be done because of companies are non-diverse and underemployed. The main problem employers are seeing is gender inequality. Gender inequality is when a group of people, in this case women, are existing with an unequal amount of opportunities and rewards. It’s a big issue and it specifically shows in STEM. Women are underpaid; even though the hourly wage is high, women aren’t present enough in STEM. To address the gender inequality gap, employers and schools should introduce women at a young age. Introducing women early is key because women are being underrepresented, not introducing STEM activities in school and women not being paid as much as men.
In a time when ladies are progressively noticeable in solution, law, and business, why are there so couple of ladies researchers and specialists? Studies by Corinne A. Moss-Racusin in his journal “Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students” and Eileen Pollack’s Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science presents convincing confirmation that can clarify this riddle. It presents inside and out yet available profiles of eight key exploration discoveries that point to natural and social hindrances that including generalizations, sexual orientation inclination, and the atmosphere of science and building divisions in schools and colleges that keep on blocking ladies' advancement in STEM. The report additionally incorporates measurements
areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics employers are not getting enough women (Pozniak). High school girls only represent 17 percent of computer science Advance Placement (AP) test takers (O'Shea). The most significant group of minorities who are behind in earning computer technology degrees and working in science and mathematical professions are women. “Historically, women’s low representation in science and engineering was said to be due in large part of their lack of ability, interest, or both” (Horning 30). However, this is no longer a true fact according to Ward. Some suggestions to increasing the amount of women in sciences include introducing already present women faculty as mentors. Over the last three decades,
Throughout the years, education has been known to play a pivotal role in the livelihood of both male and female as it positively correlates to living standards and the quality of life. With education, there are associated plagues which have stigmatized both genders and as a result disparity between the two have blossomed. It should be noted however, that within the educational system the claim of certain gender based biases and discriminatory practices continue to prevail within all aspects of academic life. This long-standing belief has been examined by multiple researchers across decades whom, for the most part provided data to support the claims of gender based discrimination in Education. In a survey taken using the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), results have shown that boys outperformed girls in Mathematics (Reilly 2012) and only 14% of the female population pursued scientific careers as opposed to men which were 39% (Porter 2015). Stemming from cultural factors, this gender bias within the American educational system have placed an ongoing strain on the academic and economic opportunities of both male and female students between the ages of 12-19. This research paper specifically sought to examine the body of research concerning gender discrimination in education that directly relates to the United States of America, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses/ subjects. It seeks to highlight the causes that
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is a rapidly growing educational and job field in this technologically advancing world. It is also starting to include more women, though not as many as one would consider “equal”. Although women make up 48% of the overall work force, they only fill 24% of STEM jobs (Beede et al. 1). Additionally, there is a lower amount of women than men graduating from colleges with degrees in STEM fields. Why is the man to woman ratio so drastically uneven in college STEM programs? Why do women have a higher rate of changing from a STEM major to something else? How can this be a problem for development in the field? How can this be remedied? For the sake of simplicity, all statistics apply to white men and women unless stated otherwise.
STEM Education (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is one of the most profound aspects of education today and it is moving the world forward in research. However, in the STEM occupations, there is a gender gap and underrepresentation of women in the field. For this research, the gender gap (with women) in STEM education/careers and how it can be reduced will be examined. Furthermore, it has been hypothesized if teachers encourage and support girls who want to go into STEM education, it will promote more women to go into STEM careers in the future. Moreover, the following ten literature reviews will strive to support the hypotheses.
Riegle-Crumb and Moore (2013) found that females were underrepresented in the engineering course they studied. Although female students made up 50% of the enrollment at the high schools, they only comprised an average of 14% of course enrollees. Women in the classes shared similar academic backgrounds with their male classmates, but the women were more likely to have a parent who worked in engineering or a scientific field.