Women in STEM
Photo by Tara Winstead (Pexels)
I frankly have no idea why but this topic just keeps coming up in my life. Okay… Actually, I have a pretty clear idea why this topic keeps popping up in my life. Mainly because I am technically in the STEM field (Science specifically) and my parents are both advocates supporting more females in STEM fields.
The reason why this topic has not been on my radar (unless mentioned by others) is simply that I am a female in a STEM field so what more can I do. There is, in my narrow-minded opinion, nothing more I can do than be in the STEM field where female researchers are wanted.
If I have to be perfectly honest, I don’t care as much as my parents whether or not more females choose a STEM major which they enjoy. Nevertheless, I would encourage STEM field majors for a completely different reason. It is interesting. STEM fields, in general, are fascinating and they hold promising futures for anyone who chooses to pursue it.
Of course, I would never discourage anyone to pursue STEM fields. However, I understand if STEM is not a major you will choose since it might not be for you. Just like how, for example, teaching is not for me because I cannot explain in a way that makes others learn and children can get on the last of my nerves.
Therefore, I never truly thought about STEM fields and their gender diversity dilemma because I never truly perceived it. One of the many reasons I don’t realize that dilemma is because I am in a STEM field with more gender diversity.
Currently, I am studying chemistry, which is along with biology and mathematics one of the most pursued STEM majors by a woman. The problem, however, lies with the other STEM fields like computer science, engineering and physics where fewer women are inclined to choose those majors.
Those other STEM fields are dominated by males and women I know in those STEM fields can confirm the lack of gender diversity. Sadly, there are many factors that contribute to this lack of gender diversity in those STEM fields.
Researchers are using three factors to explain this lack of gender diversity. (Cheryan, S., Ziegler, S. A., Montoya, A. K., & Jiang, L. (2017). Why are some STEM fields more gender balanced than others?. Psychological bulletin, 143(1), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000052)
- Masculine cultures that signal a lower sense of belonging to women than men
- A lack of sufficient early experience with computer science, engineering, and physics
- Gender gaps in self-efficacy
Many people are encouraging more females to go into STEM fields by providing events that bring STEM closer to girls to re-education courses for women who already started their careers in another field. However, the results are not that outstanding.
Nevertheless, in this article, I don’t want to write about how marketing and decade-old stereotypes have failed to push women into STEM fields because that is rather obvious. In this article, I want to write about my personal experience with STEM fields and the reason why I choose chemistry over computer science.
Since my parents are both advocates for this issue, I have been exposed to STEM fields ever since I was a little girl. My father would show me his latest soldering projects and let me help with fixing-up projects wherever I can. My mother would encourage my healthy sense of curiosity by sending me to science camp and buying science books.
Through my parents, I have always believed that the liking to fix up mechanics and experiment with household items is normal. Since as a little girl I not only liked to play with dolls but I also liked to unscrew my toys to examine the inside electrical wiring.
Frankly, I did not understand that much when I opened my toys. I just saw colourful wires and green electrical circuit boards. Even if little me did not understand what she saw, she still liked to open it and fix it up again since it was her idea of fun.
There is this sense of accomplishment when I could fix my own things without help from others. I might mess up big time but I still somehow managed to get it to work at the end of the day and that is all that matters to my five-year-old self.
That sense of curiosity did not die when I went to school. If anything, it only strengthened my curiosity and love for STEM. Teachers showed us amazing experiments and impressive technology. That just sparked my admiration for STEM even more.
It probably helped that the schools I went to were technologically advanced in comparison to the other schools in the surrounding area. In my opinion, it is helpful to work (and play) with the technology one is learning about rather than just looking at pictures and reading the instructions.
The subject I was best at in school was (not to my surprise) computer science. Frankly, it is the only subject where I fully understood everything and aced it. My female peers were struggling but I never fully realized it since I was not sitting next to any of them in class.
Throughout my life, I have witnessed how many of my female peers do not understand STEM. However, I never truly realized it simply because I understood it so well so it did not make sense to me why it did not make sense to them. (Don´t get me started on my incapability to explain anything to my peers.)
Even though I was doing averagely in my other classes like literature and history, I was doing great in STEM subjects ranging from chemistry to computer science. The only STEM field I truly messed up was physics since I always mixed up the units and symbols for no apparent reason. (Silly, I know)
Moving didn’t change my affinity towards STEM subjects. If anything it was even encouraging since I started to have female teachers in STEM subjects. This sent me the message that if they could do it then so can I. Like last time, I aced computer science and was doing great in science.
Then we moved again and that is where my fondness for STEM subjects declined. Mainly because everything was in German and even though German is supposed to be my native language, I still find it mundane and everything in it a tad tedious.
Again, I was doing great in STEM subjects. I don’t know if it helped that most STEM teachers were female but it was interesting to see that there are females in STEM fields even though there was supposed to be a shortage.
During my first school year in Germany, I was not allowed to choose computer science since my timetable was already full. The mere prospect of no computer science disappointed me greatly since I wanted to deepen my understanding of computing and I do not want to forget anything I have learnt thus far.
However, next year where I was given more creative freedom over my timetable, I choose computer science without a doubt (instead of physics). Obviously, I kept all of the other STEM subjects like biology, chemistry and mathematics and gotten rid of the subjects I found dull.
Biology, chemistry and maths were the subjects I truly excel at, unlike history and geography. However, what I did not expect is that I would fail in my computer science classes. It comes as a big shock and an even bigger disappointment.
There were many reasons I failed. Learning a different programming language could have been the culprit for my failure or the course language, which was unsurprisingly german. However, one of the main factors was indisputable.
At first, computer science class was fun and games because it was literally fun to program games. However, then came the hard part of deepening our understanding of the language and define our own classes & groups for our very own code.
For the guys, it was just a mere competition to find the one who managed to put the coolest features into their codes. It also felt incredibly intimidating to be surrounded by people who understood something you don’t.
One can even see the disappointment in the guy's eyes when they found out that there was no higher-level computer science course available for them to choose. Turns out the school does not provide that school due to lack of interest. (I can only wonder why when there is only one eligible computer science teacher.)
To my dismay, the teacher was, unlike the school before, a man. It did not help that he preferred the male students since they were in the majority. It seems as if the teacher believes that if the guys understand it then everyone understands it.
Bluntly put, I did not understand a single thing. Computer science is a class that builds upon the topics previously learnt in class and if you don’t understand the foundation of the code, it is unlikely that the untaught code would be understood.
Since I was not the only one who was not understanding anything that has been said in class, we decided to talk to the teacher about it. Sadly, when I say we, I mean the other females in the class, which was just a mere minority. Candidly, the teacher dismissed our concern and just told us to learn & practice more.
In my gloomy days, I made myself believe that computer science is not the subject for me since I was failing in comparison to my peers. I just told myself that the programming language I can ace was the only language I can understand and every other programming language that came after is just a bunch of 0 and 1´s I will never understand since the language I learnt was the easiest one. (The wrong mentality, I know)
That year, three out of four (myself included) of my female peers quit computer science. All for the same reason. My friend who stayed had a true comprehension of computer science. The following year, she and another girl were the only two females in a group made up of guys.
I felt sorry to ditch her in computer science class because she was my friend and I had a bad feeling about quitting. However, after the disastrous year (grades-wise) I had with computer science, I just had to quit. At the end of the day, I made it up to my friend by joining an after school engineering club with her.
To put it mildly, my parents were disappointed when I quit computer science since they knew that computer science is a field in demand where the supply is lacking. Nevertheless, my parents were supportive of my decision. After tons of cursing, they understood my reasons why I quit. Neither mom nor dad was happy but it was not about them since I was not happy to quit something I used to adore as well.
Later in our school careers, we had to choose our higher-level courses. This is where the disparities became obvious. For biology and maths, girls outnumbered the guys or at least it was even. However, for chemistry, guys outnumbered girls by a landslide. It was even more drastic in physics where there were only two girls with six or seven times as many guys.
This gender gap fact slapped me in the face when a teacher asked us about the courses we picked. To my surprise, I was the only one pursuing a higher level STEM course out of a select group of people, guys included. It just never truly occurred to me that some people are simply not interested in STEM.
After graduation, it was clear to me that I wanted to pursue science. Much to my parent´s dismay, I did not choose a STEM field where females are in the minority. From some university horror stories, I hear from my university friends I am glad I did not.
Even now, every time I mention that I am studying chemistry many people are still positively surprised (much to my surprise). Some would even compliment me on being a trailblazer for female scientists, which confuses me because I am apparently the only one living in a world where female scientists exist.
This disparity would only hit me even more once I join the workforce (or meet my Uni-classmates IRL). Since gender disparity in STEM fields is still very much an issue. Maybe not as big as climate change or discrimination but an issue nonetheless.
It might not be an issue if women´s unwillingness or disinterest in STEM is not the consequence of gender discrimination but sadly, it is. Just like how men do not choose more caring jobs like nursing or childcare worker. It is a discriminatory issue that led to this disparity and we need to fix it.
I warned myself not to do this but here are the eight E´s to get girls excited for STEM:
Photo by Tara Winstead (Pexels)
- Exposure. Healthy maintenance of the curiosity and interest in STEM from a young age is important since this curiosity can lead young girls into future STEM careers.
- Equality. Don’t value the boy´s interest in STEM over the girls. Both should be encouraged regardless of gender.
- Encourage. Children need a lot of encouragement and if children are encouraged to pursue STEM then it is likely that that child will have a good affiliation with STEM in the future.
- Endorse. If a child is showing interest in STEM fields then their curiosity should be supported by mentors and the resources necessary to sate their curiosity.
- Eulogize. Celebrate the smallest of accomplishments. Praise the process. Jubilate the results. For a child sometimes a good job will make them go on and pursue STEM.
- Emphasise. It is important to point out the skills like curiosity, observation, problem-solving and critical thinking learnt in STEM fields can be applied in life as well.
- Educate. Sometimes seeing females in STEM fields can be motivating for little girls to pursue STEM but if those extraordinary women would educate as well… Just think of the incentive.
- Exist. Just the existence of female STEM majors can make the male-dominated workplace seem friendlier and makes it seem that girls do not have to fight to belong.
STEM should be encouraged and accessible for children of any gender. There is a more systemic issue at large and an outdated stereotype to eliminate but it is important to take it one step at a time since if we don’t take any steps we don’t get anywhere.