Inequality is deeply rooted in the world. Despite all our efforts to create an equal world, the racist and sexist ideas of the past still hang over our heads. On the surface everything seems to be fine yet they still problems for us since the ideas remain rooted so deeply into the minds of many. This is especially true in the case of women. While we made great strides in women’s rights women cannot achieve the same greatness with the same ease as males because stereotypes and stigma still give many young girls, as well as some adults, the idea that we are not talented or smart enough to get an education or career particularly in science, technology, engineering, or math despite the abundance of job opportunities in STEM. Society needs work toward eliminating these negative stereotypes that prevent girls from breaking into STEM fields since the need for more people take on a STEM career is increasing. The largest factor in the increase in demand for STEM workers is that the world is quickly becoming more information-based and technological. According to present and former employees of Counseling and Career Development Rich Feller and Angela Taurig, the demand is …show more content…
There an abundance of unfilled jobs in STEM because there aren’t enough people who have the right skills to fill all the jobs. According to a study done by Change the Equation, an organization that supports the growth of STEM jobs, “there are 3.6 unemployed workers for every job in the United States… compare[d to] only one unemployed STEM worker for two unfilled STEM jobs throughout the country” (Engler 1). If more people got a college education in a STEM subject rather than another area they would have much more job security. Since the odds of getting a job in any other field are so low because of the amount of unemployed people per job, it makes much more sense for a student picking a major to go for a STEM
...roblems of integration. If the science world takes advantage of undiscovered female talent, science as a whole will benefit greatly. For example, the original group of ENIAC programmers consisted of 6 women. In 1946, these women helped to develop the first operating stored-program computer.6 If female talent such as this goes to waste because of social neglect, the science world will never know what possible discoveries that could have been made with the help of women. If Dr. Djerassi is accurate with his examples of discrimination, the science world should take note of these problems and attempt to solve them.
In an era of the Jim Crow laws, life as an African-American woman was difficult. The Help (2011), a film written and directed by Tate Taylor, brings back some of this history. This film takes place in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi in the time of the civil rights movement, and when racial tension was at a rise. During this time, prejudice was at occurrence. For women who lived in Mississippi during the 1960s, employment opportunities was limited due to permissible segregation and economic inequalities. This film displays some experiences of African-American domestic workers of this period. Interaction with a black person from a white person on a level other than work was frowned upon. Many laws of inequality was forced upon African-Americans.
The critical rank for reducing gender inequalities should be education, labor force participation, and lastly, wages. There are obvious differences between men and women whether it’s anatomically, financially, and so forth. The gender inequalities women face compared to men is alarming and saddening. Gender stereotypes reinforce gender inequalities because stereotypes can often be internalized which results in biases against either sex. These biases against a person can result in negative results. Gender inequality has been within our society for a long time especially amongst women.
Summers, L. H. (2005, January 14). Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce. In The Office of the President. Retrieved July 17, 2011, from http://president.harvard.edu/speeches/summers_2005/nber.php
Today’s college students have the opportunity and freedom to choose their major and their career path. Many factors influence the decision of a college student’s career paths including background, general interests, personal strengths, time commitment, and job outlook. Although many important decisions are made in college, one of the most important is the choice of major and career track. Out of hundreds of majors the science and engineering fields are under-represented by women. Although the numbers of women in science technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM, majors has been increasing in the past years, women still are in the minority in the STEM fields. In her study, Lona Whitmarsh concluded, “that career opportunities for women have widened,” but “not enough change has occurred to show significant differences between the overall population” (49). It is good that more women are entering these fields, but there are still not enough young women aspiring to fill the gaps. Further statistics show that female representation in engineering continues to be low, “in 2008 only 19 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 22.9 percent of masters, and 14.8 percent of PhDs in engineering were awarded to women” (Bystydzienski 2). Although there has been a general increase of women entering the fields of science and mathematics, overall the numbers are still low, showing that women struggle in pursuing a degree within these fields, and that many factors can lead to a female not choosing to begin or complete college in a STEM major. Women are in the minority of STEM fields.
STEM is significant to our society, we need jobs not only to compete globally, but to also fix the important problems of the world. Technology is pervasive in almost every aspect of daily life, and as the workplace changes, STEM knowledge and skills grow in importance for a variety of workers (not just for mathematicians and scientists) (Traurig par. 6). If corporations increase female participation in the future, not only will it increase more genders and diversity to work in the corporation, but it will also help solve the important problems of the world because of all the minds that are working together. STEM is the future for this next generation as technology use is on the rise and more problems occur day by day. Remember when turning on the TV to show your daughter the commercials, that one commercial you showed can be the difference between her being interested in STEM or
In the working environment, there is focus on females having unequal salaries with males or where women are lacking. Sociology Professor of University of British Columbia, Neil Guppy, reveals statistics that point out males are more likely to become engineers; “. . .men with lower mathematics test scores are significantly more likely to enter and graduate from STEM degree fields” (Guppy 248). Additionally, “. . . domestic labor continues to be segregated into blue and pink jobs, with women disproportionately doing routine housework and childcare, and men concentrating most on non-routine domestic labor (e.g. fixing things)” (Guppy 251). Feminists have every right to argue for female inequality in the working environment; if women are able to score higher mathematics scores than males then they should have every right to obtain a STEM degree and enter fields of engineering. If women are able to prove throughout the course of the feminist movement that they are strong, they should be able to perform careers when they fix things. However, the perspective this writing takes doesn’t address how males fall victim to such careers; males are discriminated into performing non-routine domestic labor because they are supposed to be the “breadwinners” or perform physically demanding jobs. Just as females are disproportionately forced into domestic labor, so are males in STEM and engineering fields; if
Less and less girls are choosing career in STEM fields causing a growing gender gap as well as a decline in many STEM fields. Now one may wonder what is STEM? The acronym STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. (Lawerence-Turner Jody, 1) There are many reasons that few girls are choosing careers in STEM fields.This is due to many factors such as socialization, lack of exposure, and lack of female role models. (Danae King, 2) A growing issue
The report of Robert Reich: “Why the Rich are getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer,” is an eye opener and a warning for society regarding unemployment that it will be facing and is currently facing due to a lack of technology and education. It clearly articulates that the jobs of routine producers and in-person servers have vanished totally as modern techniques have replaced them. The author has stated that the only people whose jobs are on the rise are symbol analysts. As stated in the report, symbol analysts are the real problem solvers. Their skills are highly in demand worldwide because they are the ones who first analyze the problem and then solve it. The Hart Report, on the other hand, also states the same problem of unemployment and the global recession which has left employers focusing on employees not only with specialists’ skills but also a “broader range of skills and knowledge” (page 6-7). The Hart Report clearly reflects what the needs of contemporary employers are, but the question is whether it is the universities or the students themselves who fail to cope with the requirements of the contemporary world which is filled with technological advancement and critical thinking. The Texas Work Source has also played an important role in examining what is actually missing in today’s generation and the reasons behind such a great decline in employment. The central
Have you wondered what would be the best degree to have in your life? The STEM vs. Humanities argument is a decades-long debate, but in this new era, the answer is quickly becoming clear. The STEM field is rapidly growing, with new and innovative advances. STEM degrees are becoming increasingly useful for young adults, far ahead of humanities and liberal arts degrees. STEM majors make more money, are better employed, and are better educated and prepared for work. STEM graduates are making nearly $16,000 more than their liberal arts counterparts and are more likely to hold a full-time job. The job market for STEM fields is also favorable for young adults, with the unemployment rate of STEM majors being a full 1.6% lower than the unemployment
Over the years there have been many changes in the work-place. Since the second World War there has been a steady increase of women on the workforce across all the different types of careers there are in the United States. Some careers have seen more of a rapid change than others, a few of the career fields that have not really had much growth in gender diversity have been Engineering and Technology. Both of these fields have always been more male dominate throughout the history of their existence. The problem is that both of these careers demand a constant stream of new innovative ideas to fuel advancements in different types of technology. Those advancements are also very important to the public’s day to day life, as both of these fields are all around us every day. There is no better way to get new ideas than to bring in someone who has a different thought process than you. That is why colleges and companies need to try harder to bring in women to these careers rather than overlook them. With that being said if someone is not right for the job, then they’re not right for the job, the problem is that many companies are choosing male engineers over female engineers. If the careers in these to field want to keep having great advancement, they’re going to need all the great minds that we can get, and stop turning so many away. There has been a lot of research done over this same subject over several years but the results do not seem to be changing, and again and again they always seem to so that men are favored over women when it comes to getting a job in the engineering and technology fields. The problem all boils down to the companies and colleges, both of which need to change so those who desire to excel in these fields, get ...
STEM is best known as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM for many years has been primarily seen as and stereotyped into a masculine work field. But as of recent years, while it expands, more and more women have been rising in these fields. However, there is still a tremendous gender gap between men and women in these fields and areas of work. The gender gap between men and women in STEM is alive and well. There is no denying that the gender gap between men and women in STEM is immense. But there instead are many sufficient reasons as to why there is such a huge gap between men and women within in fields. Some probable causes for the lack of women seen in these areas are biased towards women, unconscious bias girls receive
In many cases, women’s achievements are measured according to male oriented standards. I would like to argue with a more diverse approach to this cause. If humanity is comprised of both men and women, and we are equally dependent on each other for humanity’s survival, why are men and women not viewed as equals? These old attitudes are drilled into us from birth. If boys were taught mutual respect as they grew up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life. In the same way girls would need to be taught to set high goals; that they can reach as high as humanly possible. Unfortunately, typically male values and traditions have, over time, shaped the culture in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) fields. This has created, in many ways, a hostile learning and working environment for women. From time immemorial, women have been regarde...
However, throughout the years, women have stepped up to promote and advocate for empowerment and inequality (WIC, 2017; McBride & Parry, 2016). Even with the positive improvements with this, gender equality is still not achieved; as women are not treated or presented equally in regards to employment and the increasing number of women working did not result in equal advancements in their careers (Michailidis, et al., 2012). Gender inequalities, discrimination and stereotypes have made the workplace atmosphere inhospitable for women, which negatively affected women’s income and the opportunity to excel in their careers (Son Hing & Stamarski, 2015). Before the 1960s, there was no law that addressed the gender inequality in the workplace (McBride & Parry, 2016). Acceptable occupations and work for women in the USA in the early 19th century were limited to either domestic work or factory labor (WIC, 2017; McBride & Parry, 2016). Women were seen as incapable of doing the male-dominated jobs, such as in the STEM fields, which includes sciences, accounting, psychology, statistics, computer programming and civil and electrical engineering (Cheryan, Jiang, Montoya & Ziegler, 2016). According to Cheryan et al., (2016), women in the USA amount to 48 percent of their workforce, however, only 6.7 percent of women graduate and 24 percent work in the STEM fields, which still shows a huge gap. Women were also unequally paid, as they were paid lower than men by doing the same jobs (WIC, 2017; McBride & Parry, 2016). The establishment of the Equal Pay Act in 1963 helped reduce discrimination and gender inequality in employment and the workplace (WIC, 2017; McBride & Parry, 2016; US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2017). This act compelled employers to provide equal pay to employees regardless of sex, and it was made illegal to discriminate women
Today’s time schools prepare us to grow up and decide on a major to continue a career in a certain field. The only problem is that most jobs that will be needed by the time we get to that point in time haven’t even been created ye...