STEM Must Recruit Women

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When you think of STEM jobs, you don’t necessarily even realize there’s a lack of women in these types of jobs. Science, technology, engineer, and math jobs are primarily a male dominated field. In the early years around 1990 there were more women going into these types of jobs at, but compared to today, there has been a decrease of women who are graduating in STEM fields. This is alarming, considering the job opportunity growth for the STEM field in the future. STEM jobs are expected to grow at least 20 percent or more by 2020 according to the occupational outlook handbook. With the lack of women in these fields, there will be a lot of job openings without anyone to fill. Women may not find the STEM field appealing due to the typical stereotype of STEM jobs, the amount of underrepresented women, and dealing with sexism in the workplace. STEM field needs to recruit more girls and women by providing more pathways for young girls and be less sexist.
In today’s world, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineer, and Math) fields is still predominant males and there seems to be a lack of females in these fields. One reason why women may not enter the field is due to stereotyping. The stereotype that most people in these fields are anti-social, nerdy, and must be super intelligent. Of course, the thought of not being intelligent enough, working alone and no one to socialize with and not wanting to be viewed at as a nerdy person can be daunting. These are all misconceptions of STEM jobs. According to code.org all it takes to learn coding is determination, as it does to learn most field. This is true for a lot of STEM jobs, it doesn’t require you to have to be smart before even considering studying in STEM related jobs, and it takes a lot of de...

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...along with great pay over 60 thousand or more.
Again with great pay and benefits from the STEM field, this doesn’t mean women will be flocking to these fields especially if sexism is still a very real thing with STEM jobs. STEM will need to encourage women and have policies in place to support harassment of sexism. We also need to advise young girls of their options in these fields and if they choose it, we need to make more pathways for young girls to enter STEM without all the stereotyping and sexism that exist today. By providing a better working environment for women, encouraging young girls with programs and mentors we can succeed in helping close the gender gap in STEM and fill the future job openings. This will help our economy as well as be beneficial for women who enter STEM to reap the rewarding challenging job and benefits such as pay and flexibility.

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