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Hello! Let’s brainstorm and send in submissions for how to support women and girls in STEM! I’m excited to hear what others have to say.
We can brainstorm on this post or users can submit their ideas directly here: https://tinyurl.com/5efnd33j
I’d like to hear why women left STEM or why they love STEM: what worked and what didn’t. I found that academia was less friendly to the needs of women compared to industry.
"I found that academia was less friendly to the needs of women compared to industry."
I'm guessing this depends a lot of which part of the STEM you fall under. Tech is a misogynistic hellhole, especially in the most male-dominated and highest paying areas and for the most competent women.
I think schools need to focus on including female scientists in history. Kids need to be corrected when they say sexist things. I still remember a preschool student telling me after we read a book about dentists "that only men are dentists." 🙄 Imagine being a young boy and feeling so confident as to correct the teacher aid...
I studied computer science because it was the late 90s and felt like I should. It was more practical than my other interests. Turns out that isn’t a good reason to study computer science, you really do need to be passionate about it to succeed
I would help girls navigate which jobs you really need to be an obsessively passionate geek to do, and which can be just a job
I’m thinking about a mentoring network for women and girls, but shouldn’t something like that exist already? I’m most interested in the problem of retaining female talent and getting us into leadership positions.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with letting a job just be a job. Women need guidance here too, you’re on point.
I haven't left my job as a software engineer yet but I'm debating it. I think we need to stop having to call our male co-workers “she/her”... It's distracting and frankly insulting. Especially when you are the only female on the team.
Me too. I can cope with trans coworkers if I'm working from home but seeing them at the office is tough. I don't really hate any of them, they are all neurodivergent in some way and so am I, so we are often on the same wavelength when it comes to problem solving. But when we're face to face in real life and I am forced to pretend to be okay with them cosplaying as my sex and using the same bathroom as me, I can't help but feel like I'm being manipulated and insulted.
I don't want to click on that link, because I don't know where it leads to.
just so you know, you really don't need the ? or anything after it in a link. So, https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/gender-equity-in-stem-challenge is sufficient.
I love engineering and had a great time at engineering school. Once in the workplace....not so much. Everyone assumed my incompetence and there was a lot of backstabbing by male colleagues pretending to be nice to you when it became clear you were more hard working, better liked, or smarter than them.
The backstabbing was always of the variant: "she's too direct, she communicates aggressively, she causes dissension on the team". You become an "unlikeable" colleague, and a PIP follows.
It sucked.