Stigma in STEM

It’s a new era for women. We’ve come a long way, from gaining the right to vote to now where we girls grow up hearing we can do anything, be anything. This hasn’t been an easy feat for women to accomplish and for that reason for over 100 years, International Women’s Day has been celebrated worldwide to commemorate women, their struggles, and their achievements.

Women who entered the workplace and are actively pursuing careers are constantly fighting gender biases to establish themselves in various domains and after a long time, women have achieved broad parity with men in almost every field. However, women remain a minority in the STEM field. I know to a lot of you it doesn’t matter–we might as well leave all the engineering to men. But when some of the biggest advances in our society are happening due to those in STEM and those technologies have the power to change our lives, we deserve to have a female perspective. 

We need to live in a culture that values and respects and looks up to and idolizes women as much as men.

~ Emma Watson

As a computer science major, I was pleasantly surprised to have met numerous other women also pursuing a career in STEM which proves that women are slowly breaking the social norms. However, for the most part, science and technology fields still remain a boys club. So what is it that makes science and math so appealing to boys but not girls? Growing up, every child is interested in creating and building things, but as we get older there are social and cultural barriers girls face and quite simply they’re not encouraged the same way boys are. 

When we picture an engineer, a surgeon, or a computer scientist more often than not we’re picturing a man as they are the norm. Society has made men lean more towards STEM careers as they associate the field with being intelligent, strong, domineering, and successful. This has caused generations of women to look down upon STEM careers as they have been trained to disassociate themselves from being seen as nerdy or geeky as it’s not ‘girly’.

Although progress is being made and women have made a breakthrough in the workplace and established themselves as strong, independent, and intelligent (maybe even the superior gender but that’s just my opinion) more girls need to be shown that they can be whatever boys can be. They do not have to limit themselves and their goals just because it’s what others would want. Representation matters which is why when young women see few women going into science, technology, engineering, and math fields, they have fewer role models and examples to follow. The stigma women face in STEM is still very much prevalent; however, talking about it is what helps. 

With International Women’s Day coming up, we should prove to young women that they are as competent and powerful as men and can achieve everything they desire. They fit in any STEM field and can be a doctor, scientist, or engineer, and there will always be other women right behind them supporting everything they do.

“Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.” 

~ Mae Jemison, first African American woman astronaut in space

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• her campus
• international womens day
• STEM
• women empowerment
• women in STEM