, via Wikimedia Commons”]
Not that long ago, girls were actively discouraged from careers in science, technology, engineering and math. And women’s representation in STEM fields reflected this. In the 1960s, for instance, just one in every 100 engineers was a woman. The situation has improved, but today, women still make up only 27 percent of people working in science and engineering.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up 47 percent of the total U.S. workforce, but are much less represented in particular science and engineering occupations. They comprise 39 percent of chemists and material scientists, 28 percent of environmental scientists and geoscientists, 16 percent of chemical engineers and just 12 percent of civil engineers.
So what can be done? Perhaps we can encourage movie and tv directors to cast more women in STEM roles on television shows and movies. Pushing important STEM organizations, like NASA and others, to report on their internal demographics would make the issue more public and would have a big impact.
Here is some advice from women in STEM fields for girls who also want to pursue a career in these areas: Follow your passion, work hard, ignore the doubters and find peers who are just as into STEM as you are.
Follow this link to see some awesome women who work in a STEM related fields from all over the world:
https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/blog/eureka-lab/women-stem-reach-stars