KESQ investigates gender gap for women in STEM careers
Women make up less than 30% of the science and engineering workforce yet account for half of the total U.S. college-educated work labor pool.
Technology is another industry that has an unbalanced gender representation. The majority of us use various technology advances on a daily basis.
Kasey Nguyen, consultant in cyber security, gave examples such as, “turning on your lights before you come home, adjusting your thermostat over the web, surveillance camera….” She went on to explain that these are all things that are made by humans, therefore, “computers are imperfect like us so there’s always a growing need for this area.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment demand for information security analysts is projected to grow much faster than the average for all other occupations. Similar demands can be found among field specializations in engineering. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau found only 6% of the mechanical engineering workforce in 2011 was female.
Women are under represented in many STEM occupations. 1,818,000 women were employed in science and engineering occupations compared to 4,590,000 men in the same fields, as found in the National Science Foundation 2015 survey. Men dominate many of the STEM fields but not all. From the same survey, women outnumbered men 3,412,000 to 1,471,000 in health occupations. However the spread is largely uneven throughout physical (W:92,000/M:239,000) and computer (W:698,000/M:2,148,000) sciences.
As Laura Graff, a professor of mathematics, shared, “I was sitting in my real analysis class waiting for the teacher to come in… at the time I had really long hair, was very slim and physically fit and she walked in and she had really long hair and she was slim and physically fit and I went, I could be a professor! It really took seeing somebody that looked like me to make me realize, yeah, I can do that”.
Seeing more women in these positions will encourage future generations to pursue similar routes. A good consensus among those interviewed on how to grow the number of women in the various STEM fields is it all begins with support, first in the home and then continued throughout school.
If you are interested in learning more about and supporting a local middle school aged girl in attending a STEM summer program, visit these sites:
http://palmsprings-ca.aauw.net/techtrek/ and http://techtrek-irvine.aauw.net/
A scholarship opportunity is available to Coachella Valley high school seniors through the American Public Works Association for those pursuing a degree in civil engineering, public works or a related field.
Follow this link for the application and to learn more: http://www.indio.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=25056
