What Is The Advantage Of Women In STEM?

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“One of the things that I really strongly believe is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science, and engineering. We’ve got half of the population that is way underrepresented in those fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent...that is not being encouraged…” ("Women and girls," 2013)
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continues to significantly improve everyday life, and it has grown rapidly in the job industry to create innovative products and global competition. However, women are greatly underrepresented, not only in STEM occupations, but also in earning an undergraduate degree in a STEM field. Engineers are the second largest STEM occupational group, but only about one out of every seven engineers is female (Beede et all., 2011). The shortage of women in STEM has been a recent controversial topic that has captured the attention of researchers, employers, and universities. “Although women fill close to half of the jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs. This has been the case throughout the past decade, even as college- educated women have increased their share of the overall workforce” (Beede et all., 2011). Moreover, it is important to discuss the initiatives that K-12 and universities are taking to educate women about the advantages of having a STEM degree and helping them out along the way as they endure challenges within the degree. “Research profiles how small improvements in the culture of computer science and physics departments , such as changing admissions requirements and presenting a broader overview of the field in introductory, courses can add up to big gains in female student recruitment and retention” (Hill, Corbett & St....

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...here there are no other female companions. Thus, having supported lunches and social events can help incorporate women in different STEM departments. If young women do not believe they have the ability to become a scientist or engineer, they will choose to be something else. Helping young women understand that women and men are equally capable in STEM areas will increase young women self-assessment of their math and science skills, which, in turn, will increase young women aspirations for careers in STEM (Hill et all., 2010).Women tend to be harder on themselves when assessing their potential to succeed in STEM, which results in discouragement. However, if mentorship is advocated, such as female role models in math and science, along with instilling the importance of passion, perseverance, and self-improvement overtime women’s self-confidence in STEM will increase.

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