Essay on Women In Science: Why So Few?
Cara Santa Maria has chosen to pursue career in S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field. She notices not enough women there. American women make up a half of the workforce of the country, but hold less than one quarter of the S.T.E.M. jobs. Recent survey revealed that for 30% of teen girls, maths is the most challenging subject for them, while only 19% of boys tell the same thing. Girls show less interest in pursuing maths, science, technology or engineering careers. Males outscore females in tasks measuring spatial skills, for example, mental rotation, while females generally perform higher results on verbal tasks. However, these discrepancies can be overcome with simple training in a short period of time. Socio-cultural factors, like stereotype threat, have the greatest impact on young girl’s attitude. In one of the 1st experiments on stereotypes threats, two groups of both genders with equivalent maths interests and abilities were given a graduate level test in mathematics. The first group before taking exam was told that there were no gender difference in scores. The graded exams showed similar results (around 60% and 55%). The second group beforehand was told that men got better results on the test then women. There, boys scored in 86%, while girls scored 16%. Since then, more than 300 different experiments demonstrated that phenomenon. Girls have less confidence in their ability and possibility to succeed in S.T.E.M. subjects, so they are unlikely to try to succeed. Both men and women have unconscious attitudes towards gender and socials roles. We should let people realize that. One of the best way to educate girls is to give them some example to look up to. We need more women in science, technology, engineering and maths. We must remind young girls that it is cool to be smart.
Joanne Cohoon. The Path to Full Participation – Understanding, Intervening and Accessing
Joanne Cohoon from National Center for Women & IT, University of Virginia, USA claims that the USA has a women underrepresentation in different spheres of computing on different levels. According to SAT exam, from all the high school female students, only 13% were going to make career in computing in 2008 and 2009. Only 18% of all students who took advanced placement test on computer science were females in 2009 and 19% in 2010. There is a slight increase in female’s share in studying and graduating with computer profession, as well as engineering and science. Women’s representation in computing is rather low in most countries, not only the USA.
If we want to change this situation, we need to understand what is going on, to make interventions based on this understanding and to access the outcomes of our actions. One of the reasons for women’s underrepresentation in computing is cultural belief about gender and technology. We need to learn different theories and consider different approaches, examine research results and make a plan of our actions. The study has shown that local efforts can counter prevailing conditions and beliefs about gender and technology. It is important to apply research findings and apply programs that will work. Besides, this problem should not be considered a women’s issue, men must be involved if we want to have progress. Activists should work together with policymakers, share the results of the research, so that people would know what might work.
In order not to waste time, we need to access the results of our actions to learn whether they work. Another integral part of changing the situation with women’s underrepresentation in computing is communicating with others, as only together we can move forward.
Impact investing – women fuel 21st century economy: Kay Koplovitz at TEDxBayArea
The video presents the speech of Kay Koplovitz who starts with explaining why she believes women will empower the economy in the 21st century. Her story begins with the description of events of 1999, when she worked as a national business counselor appointed by President Clinton to measure the results of women businesses, especially those that were supported by government. She understood that over a 100 billion dollars was the capital and only 1,7% was going to women. She decided to find the women from different spheres of business whom people would want to fund. After some research, she found 350 companies in technology and life science and chose 26 best of them to present. The unique fact of that entire situation was that all those 350 companies where ruled by women. After the presentation, 22 of those companies got funded. That story was about the ability of women to grow into a scale of large businesses.
The video continues with showing the most successful business women of that project. Robin Chase, the thought leader in transportation, presented the first car sharing club in the USA which is called Zipcar. Linds Hall, the leader of urgent care healthcare, presented her project called Minute clinic. Ping Fu, the leader of 3-D technology, became famous thanks to her company Geomagic. One more interesting story was about Kathleen Callender`s project called PharmaJet, the idea of which was the use of needless injectors to indicate blood borne diseases spread through unsafe needle usage in the developing world.
At the end Kay Koplovitz provids interesting facts: women do 66% of the world’s work, but only earn 10% of the world’s income, yet invest 90% of their income into family and community. She finishes the speech telling about being sure that women are going to power the economy in the 21st century.
Why More Women Aren’t Computer Scientists, Engineers
The video presents an interview of Judy Woodruff with Dr. Maria Klawe, the president of Harvey Mudd College. The main question is “Why women are not pursuing careers in so called STEM fields (science, technologies, engineering and maths) in the same way as men”.
Dr. Maria Klawe informs that there are many young women going into chemistry, and biology, but there are very few women going into computer science, physics and engineering. On her opinion, it happens due to several reasons: 1 – they think it is not interesting; 2- they don`t think they can be good at it; 3 – they have the image of the people whose field is not attractive. Taking into account all these reasons, Dr. Maria Klawe just suggests young women to follow their passion.
She is sure that careers in science are amazing, they are well paid and are very flexible and give opportunity to combine career with family, especially computer science. She mentions that what is created in the technology today depends on who creates it: it can be computer games, medical devises or something else. If women decide to create things, it can be a different set of products.
Dr. Maria Klawe recommends parents of girls to encourage their daughters to try science and to find the instructor who is encouraging.
Discussing the importance of math and science at school, elevating their roles, she mentions that future economic opportunities are impossible without STEM; it demands that we need to have a work force that is well skilled in these spheres. The final message tells that we don`t have a future if we don’t achieve this.
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