The Huffington Post – Claire Topalian
“Despite consistent growth in the STEM job market over the past 10 years, we still see a disparate number of young women entering STEM fields. In a recent article, Girl Scouts CEO Anna Maria Chavez explains, “While women comprise 48 percent of the U.S. workforce, just 24 percent are in STEM fields, a statistic that has held constant for nearly a decade.” Just last year, major tech companies made their diversity numbers public, revealing that only 17 percent of Google’s team is comprised of women, and at Facebook just 15 percent. These numbers are likely related to another data point: while women make up 57% of U.S. College students, only 18 percent earn computer science degrees. These numbers ultimately leave us asking the same questions: What might account for the lack of women in STEM, why do companies benefit from hiring more women in STEM, and what can be done to encourage young women to pursue careers in STEM-related fields? Tackling the first question — what might account for the lack of women in STEM — is the most difficult one to answer in tangible terms. The root causes of such an issue would require an in-depth approach that includes an assessment of sociological implications — something that most of us aren’t equipped to discuss holistically let alone begin to solve. It is perhaps more useful, then, to focus not on the problem so much as the solution and the reasons why it is so important to strive towards a solution.”(more)