Underrepresentation Of Women In STEM Essay

Today’s college students have the opportunity and freedom to choose their major and their career path. Many factors influence the decision of a college student’s career paths including background, general interests, personal strengths, time commitment, and job outlook. Although many important decisions are made in college, one of the most important is the choice of major and career track. Out of hundreds of majors the science and engineering fields are under-represented by women. Although the numbers of women in science technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM, majors has been increasing in the past years, women still are in the minority in the STEM fields. In her study, Lona Whitmarsh

During his high school life he spent it there at Laney High School. In the fall of 1978, Jordan didn't make the varsity team as a sophomore at Laney High School. He played for the J.V. basketball team instead. However, back in 1978, Jordan was known as Mike, not Michael. The best basketball player in the world. He was better as a baseball player than as a basketball player. He was an outstanding center fielder and pitcher who would later throw 45 consecutive shutout innings for Laney High School. The next year Michael Jordan came back and made it to the Varsity team where his career will take flight. He led Laney to the No. 1 state ranking as a senior, but he couldn't lead his school to a state title. Due to his successful career in high school,

In a speech in February 2013 President Barak Obama said, “One of the things that I really strongly believe in is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science, and engineering. We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in those fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.” It been three years since President Obama has made that statement and the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and math as known as STEM majors is still a big problem today. The STEM workforce is crucial to Americas global competitiveness and groundbreaking capability. The people who work in the STEM field make up nearly half of the United

51 percent of the United States is female but only 34.4 percent of doctors are women. While 90.4 percent of nurses are female (“Women in Medicine”; “Male Nurses Becoming”), the women who do become doctors earn an astounding 25 percent less than their male counterparts (Groves). These staggering figures are only a single piece in the larger overall lack of women in STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which has remained prevalent since the beginning of these fields. Although women are underrepresented in these STEM fields, this is not due to ineptitude, but instead it is a result of the force of societal stereotypes coupled with their wider range of abilities. The recent increase in women’s association with STEM seems

All though women in STEM face many challenges as a whole, a question being posed in this study is whether or not women in math and physics intensive studies face unique obstacles. Underrepresentation in STEM seems a stubborn fact of the matter, however, it is not even across the board. The number of women present in the life sciences (sciences such as biology, environmental studies, health care, etc.), both at the academic and professional level, is much higher than the number of women present in fields that focus heavily on math, physics, and engineering. More and more women are choosing to pursue post-secondary education and enter the specialized workforce; in 2010 the AAUW found “Women currently earn over half of all doctoral degrees

Women have struggled in establishing their rightful place in the STEM environment because of this image of a family where the mother is the chief caretaker of the children. Society believes that a woman’s first priority

Andresse St. Rose, Christianne Corbett, and Catherine Hill, are actively involved in the field of female studies in education and researchers for The American Association of University Women. In their 2010 book titled Why so Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, the first chapter is the book’s namesake and contains a wide depth of information, from statistics regarding a smaller female presence in STEM careers, differences across gender in students pursuing STEM related AP courses, and a comparison of the gender divide in earlier years with the present time.

In his article, “Does Gender Matter?”, Ben A. Barres writes about the apparent absence of women in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields. He starts out the article by informing the reader about a few of the hypotheses that aim to explain this difference in presence, hypotheses that Barres aims to disprove. Barres explains, and at a few points depicts with charts and graphs, the significance of the gap between the amount of white men in the STEM majors and fields of studies and the amount of women and minorities in these same areas. He tell the readers the misconceptions such as the idea that women are inferior in these fields are untrue, and the fact is that woman and minorities are discouraged from entering into these areas

Throughout the years, males have dominated the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with very few females finding their way in the mix (Steinberg, Okun, & Aiken, 2012). Those females enrolling in the STEM majors soon find themselves questioning why they have, and many quickly change their majors to more female-accepting professions (Steele, James, & Barnett, 2002). The view that women lack the intellect to succeeded in STEM disciplines has been a prevailing one for much of history (Cadinu, Maass, Rosabianca, & Kiesner, 2005). Many researchers have questioned whether it is social stigma impeding female success or indeed basic biological differences that make males are more successful

Women in STEM: Race and Women in STEM The underrepresentation of women in STEM is a known, yet a persisting fact. This lingering fact has encouraged a lot of research on the subject. Within this research the differentiating factors of minority women and their experiences in STEM compared to white women. The distinctions between minority women and white women are put into too categories single disadvantage, or only having a singular oppression against you, such as just being a woman, and a double disadvantage woman, which is a woman that has two oppresses characteristic, such as being a minority race and being a woman (1).

Even though some academics would say why use incentives to help better the underrepresentation of women in the STEM careers because government incentives can have a good cause and effect on the workforce of the STEM careers like they have in nursing and teaching. the cause would be the elevate women's interest in following the STEM paths and the effect would be an increased workforce that is more concentrated in STEM to fulfill the shortages in the workforce. Women

Men are the people who have the most rank in technical skills. There has not been any growth in jobs in STEM since 2000 for women. It has been said that the pattern may begin in early education. Females may not be encouraged to study math and science as much as males are encouraged to do so. Very few of females who earn bachelor’s degree do so in the area of STEM. However, slightly over half of bachelor’s degrees are earned by women. Many people believe that females lack the intelligence to be successful in STEM. Others believe women do better in skills such as education, and humanitarian roles such as doctor’s an lawyers. Sometimes women themselves believe that men have what it takes to be successful in STEM. Sometimes females have “self-esteem”

One area where structural sexism exists and has an impact on women today is in education. Until recently, approximately the same number of male and females were graduating high school and earning college degrees. However, that trend has been gradually changing. More women are now enrolling into colleges and universities and many women have higher educations than that of their husbands. The structural sexism component does not stem so much from the levels of education between men and women, but more about what career fields and professions women are continuing to pursue. Men still far outnumber women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professions. According to Understanding Social Problems, “reasons for the STEM gender

Industry , government, and academic leaders argue that americans should make the science, technology, engineering and mathematical fields (STEM) more accessible. “They have high-quality, knowledge-intensive jobs that lead to discovery and new technology,” improving the U.S. economy and standard of living;(Lavender 1). One focus area for increasing the STEM workforce has been to reduce disparities in STEM employment by sex, race, and Hispanic origin. Actually, women, Blacks, and Hispanics have been underrepresented in the STEM employment. Some researchers find that women, Blacks, and Hispanics are less likely to be in a science or engineering major at the start of their college experience, and less likely to remain in these majors by its conclusion.

The first reason is school mission. I concur with Wellesley’s mission, “To provide an excellent liberal arts education for women who will make a difference in the world.” I am independent and always challenge myself. I hate people often consider women are fragile, sensible, and bad in science, and I always want people to know that women can do well in STEM field. The development of these kinds of personalities are due to my past education. Since kindergarten, I had been studying at girls’ schools for 14 years. During my time in girls’ school, my classmate and I had to do everything by ourselves, including moving heavy things, which led to strong and independent girls. Without boys, it was easier for us to be brave, to establish confidence