To say that women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) – would be an understatement. Things have changed a lot for females in the last few decades, especially since female STEM role models have started encouraging and advising girls to join this field of study. And yet, there’s still a lot to be improved. In this article, we’ll discuss how role models for women are ideal to increase the number of girl students who join the STEM world.
What Is a STEM Girl Model and Why It Matters
For the longest time, females were discouraged to pursue a career in the STEM fields. Today, the world is much different, but women still need a bit of motivation to pursue this dream. The presence of women role models can make a big difference. They can provide guidance, and inspiration, and give girls a sense of belonging in this world. This is one highly effective way to beat the stereotypes and help break down the barriers further.
To get a better understanding of how important it is to use role models in STEM fields for young women, it’s important to get more information on the topics. You can find valuable insights on this topic in free essay examples. Once you find A+ “Role Models” essays to read for free, you can learn about the success of this approach, and find examples of brilliant females in the STEM world that have inspired others to follow their passion in the field. This makes for an excellent topic for a research paper, too.
Examples of essays will tell you the stories of successful women in the STEM career who helped students pursue their dream. In the past, a female student could easily change her mind about this career even if they are very good at it – or really want to work in it. They lacked support and were frequently reminded of the male gender stereotypes placed in this field by society.
To put it simply, girls who are interested in the field can truly benefit if they have women in STEM role models to keep them informed, encouraged, and maintain their interest. This is how they’ll kill the doubts and stereotypes and slowly, but surely close the skills and gender gap that exists for a very long time.
The Success of STEM Role Models on Students
Microsoft’s research on the topic revealed that, on average, the number of girls interested in this field doubles when there’s someone to inspire and encourage them. This study shows that the link between increased interest in STEM subjects and role models is strong, and students who spoke to experts in the field show greater self-confidence when choosing their majors.
The gap between the number of interested girls in these subjects and that of women who actually work in the field remains big – but it is much smaller than it used to be. According to Microsoft’s research, on average, a European girl lost interest in this by the age of 15. With some exposure to expert role models, we could make sure that these girls follow that passion and aren’t pushed away from it because of gender stereotypes.
Initiatives and Measures to Follow Today
Even though the results are as mentioned, there’s no written solution that will motivate girls and young females to pursue a career in STEM. However, some initiatives already show amazing results in this, such as CoderDojo, DigiGirlz, and Czechitas. These initiatives run frequent workshops that encourage young people to pursue their interests in STEM subjects.
Other organizations that have taken the steps to encourage young girls are Accenture and UNESCO, both providing information about the importance of role models in the field. Their idea is to encourage educators, NGOs, policymakers, as well as the private sector to take action and invest toward bridging this big digital gap.
This is definitely an issue to address, especially when we are experiencing a shortage of ICT workers.
The Progress So Far and Plans for the Future
The number of women in the STEM sectors has been growing slowly over the years, but we should put an emphasis on ‘slowly’. This tells us one thing – we still need to do a lot to speed up these numbers i.e. increase the exposure to role models that encourage and educate the girl students.
The recent push to do this is present in many countries around the world and is certainly not unnoticed. The results have been amazing, and we are already seeing great progress being made. In many tests, girls even outperformed boys in tests in science, and the number of females enrolled in STEM courses is rising every year.
The barriers do exist for females but, in a work industry that is becoming more diverse as we speak, there are ways to acknowledge and reduce the gender gap. Role models are a significant factor in this.
