Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM)

Since the 2001 release of NCRW’s seminal publication "Balancing the Equation: Where Are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering and Technology?" women have made significant strides in STEM-related studies and careers. However, progress in some areas has fallen short, particularly in technical fields – engineering, biochemistry and computer science/technology – in which women are still largely under-represented. The barriers and obstacles to women’s advancement are numerous and complex including gender bias, lack of mentoring and economic hardship. Efforts need to be stepped up to reduce these constraints. Explore the resources listed below, including Related Categories links, or use the Keyword Search for more information.

How women are changing the tech world

Teaser:

USA Today profiles a new generation of female tech start-up founders.

Editorial:

From USA Today:

Reshaping a time-worn narrative isn't easy. Social revolutions rarely are, especially when you're a woman trying to break into the boys' club that is Silicon Valley.

But an emerging class of early-stage tech start-up executives is helping dispel the notion that there isn't a leading role for them in the male-dominated valley.

Company founders and leaders are coming out of Google, Salesforce.com and elsewhere for the excitement of shaping a young business.

The emergence of young female tech founders and executives reflects sweeping change in the worlds of start-up companies and angel funding, where wealthy investors give money in return for a stake in a company. It underscores the enormous purchasing prowess of women online that is transforming the Web economy. As more consumers reach for their smartphones and tablets to shop and communicate, there is a pressing need for commerce sites that cater to women, who control 70% of online purchases worldwide, according to Lisa Stone, CEO of BlogHer, a digital media company.

Many of these inroads are being made by female-led start-ups that are fueling innovation and the digital economy. Women will influence the purchase of $15 trillion in goods by 2014, according to Boston Consulting Group.

[...]

Source:

USA Today

URL:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-06-04/female-tech-executives/55382536/1

Date:

June 7, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

NYT-“MEN invented the internet”

Teaser:

Xeni Jardin critique's The New York Times' piece on the Ellen Pao/Kleiner Perkins sexual harassment lawsuit, and gender discrimination in Silicon Valley.

Editorial:

From BoingBoing:

What a steaming turd of an opening line in David Streitfeld's otherwise serviceable New York Times piece about the Ellen Pao/Kleiner Perkins sexual harassment lawsuit, and gender discrimination in Silicon Valley.

Here's the opening graf (bold-ing, mine):

MEN invented the Internet. And not just any men. Men with pocket protectors. Men who idolized Mr. Spock and cried when Steve Jobs died. Nerds. Geeks. Give them their due. Without men, we would never know what our friends were doing five minutes ago.

You guys, ladies suck at technology and the New York Times is ON IT.

Radia "Mother of the Internet" Perlman and the ghosts of RADM Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace and every woman who worked in technology for the past 150 years frown upon you, sir. Women may have been invisible, but the work we did laid the groundwork for more visible advancements now credited to more famous men.

"Men are credited with inventing the internet." There. Fixed it for you.

[...]

Source:

BoingBoing

URL:

http://boingboing.net/2012/06/03/nyt-men-invented-the-inter.html

Date:

June 5, 2012

Affiliate:

Girl Scouts: Not just cookies. We want science!

Teaser:

CNN reports that Girl Scouts aren't just interested in cookies--they want to explore science, too.

Editorial:

From CNN:

A recent Girl Scout Research Institute study showed that 74% of high school girls are interested in STEM. But few girls pursue careers in these areas, in part because many think they'd have to work harder than men to be taken seriously.

Leaders of the Girl Scouts aim to change this by ramping up the troops' exposure to STEM, both through activities and interactions with women working in these fields.

"Sometimes, access is just knowing about the careers that are available and meeting a young woman who is a role model," said Suzanne Harper, senior director of program resources at Girl Scouts of the USA, the national organization.

The Girl Scouts have infused STEM throughout their badges, which were overhauled last fall ahead of the organization's 100th anniversary this year. The organization has also formed new partnerships with AT&T and the New York Academy of Sciences to connect girls with female engineers, scientists and mathematicians.

[...]

Source:

CNN

URL:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/24/news/economy/girl-scouts-stem/index.htm

Date:

May 29, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

How Academic Biologists and Physicists View Science Outreach

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 05/14/2012 - 10:36am

Scholars and pundits alike argue that U.S. scientists could do more to reach out to the general public. Yet, to date, there have been few systematic studies that examine how scientists understand the barriers that impede such outreach. Through analysis of 97 semi-structured interviews with academic biologists and physicists at top research universities in the United States, we classify the type and target audiences of scientists’ outreach activities. Finally, we explore the narratives academic scientists have about outreach and its reception in the academy, in particular what they perceive as impediments to these activities. We find that scientists’ outreach activities are stratified by gender and that university and disciplinary rewards as well as scientists’ perceptions of their own skills have an impact on science outreach. Research contributions and recommendations for university policy follow.

URL:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0036240

Women scientists lose out on research prizes

Teaser:

USA Today reports on a study published in the journal Social Studies of Science that male scientists still receive an outsized number of research awards compared to women.

Editorial:

From USA Today:

Women are nominated for research prizes just as frequently as men, however unconscious bias and men running prize panels seems to be swaying award outcomes, suggests the study in the current Social Studies of Science journal.

Varying widely by discipline, women receiveabout 40% of all doctoratesin science (around 70% of psychology degrees but less in other fields) and engineering (about 10%), and have long suffered from lower odds of becoming full professors or attaining other markers of prestige in those fields.

"A large body of social science research finds that work done by women is perceived as less important or valuable that that done by men," begins the study led by sociologist Anne Lincoln of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In their research, the study authors looked at award patterns from 13 scientific and medical societies from 1991 (206 awards) to 2010 (296 awards).

[...]

Source:

USA Today

URL:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2012/03/women-scientists-shafted-on-research-prizes-matilda-effect/1#.T4JY95lDuUo

Date:

April 8, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Study: Privilege not indicator of women's success in STEM fields

Teaser:

Two University of Kansas professors have published a study showing that ability alone simply isn’t enough for women to excel in the STEM fields, and that how far women are from privilege makes a much bigger difference.

Editorial:

From the news release:

Barbara Kerr, Williamson Family Distinguished Professor of Counseling Psychology and Research in Education; and Karen Multon, professor and chair of psychology and research in education, published the study in the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment. The study examines “distance from privilege,” or the idea that how far young women perceives themselves from ideal socioeconomic, geographic, educational and various other variables can determine how likely they can be to persist in education and careers in the STEM fields. Two methods for measuring where women view themselves in relation to ideal places of power and privilege were also developed.

“We’re trying to understand how to keep young women in college in STEM,” Kerr said. “Once they are in the field, how do we keep them there? We find over and over that women who do persist have had to overcome many barriers.”

The researchers have found that ability alone is not enough to predict whether a young woman will succeed in STEM. It is an important variable, Kerr said, but research should also consider a number of other social variables and take a subjective look at what may stand in the way of success. Developing a tool that can accurately measure distance from privilege can greatly benefit gender equity work and help develop a model for identifying women with the potential to persist in the field.

[...]

Source:

University of Kansas

URL:

http://www.news.ku.edu/2012/march/5/stem.shtml

Date:

April 4, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Mildred Garcia, President, CSU Fullerton

Mildred García, Ed.D., is the incoming president of California State University, Fullerton, and currently serves in that capacity at CSU Dominguez Hills, where she has been since 2007. She is the first Latina president of the CSU system. During her tenure, García has cut costs, boosted enrollment, increased student graduation rates and expanded fundraising. She facilitated the first endowed professorship, the <i>Wallis Annenberg Endowed Professor for Innovation in STEM Education</i>.</p><p>García is a scholar in the field of higher education, and her research and publications have concentrated on equity in higher education and its impact on policy practice.

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Expert Profile

Location:

United States

33° 52' 26.6628" N, 117° 54' 9.486" W

See map: Google Maps

Mildred García, Ed.D., is the incoming president of California State University, Fullerton, and currently serves in that capacity at CSU Dominguez Hills, where she has been since 2007. She is the first Latina president of the CSU system. During her tenure, García has cut costs, boosted enrollment, increased student graduation rates and expanded fundraising. She facilitated the first endowed professorship, the Wallis Annenberg Endowed Professor for Innovation in STEM Education.

García is a scholar in the field of higher education, and her research and publications have concentrated on equity in higher education and its impact on policy practice. She is a much sought-after speaker at national and international conferences, and serves on the boards of many higher education organizations.

Location

Fullerton, CA 92834

United States

33° 52' 26.6628" N, 117° 54' 9.486" W

See map: Google Maps

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Increasing Opportunities for Low-Income Women and Student Parents in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math at Community Colleges

Submitted by asklar on Tue, 03/20/2012 - 10:52am

Jobs in science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM) fields are expected to grow by 17 percent between 2008 and 2018, nearly double the growth of all other fields.

URL:

http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/student-parent-success-initiative/increasing-opportunities-for-low-income-women-and-student-parents-in-science-technology-engineering-and-math-at-community-colleges-1/view

Member Organization:

Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Who Are the Next Generation's Leaders in Technology, Science, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)?

Teaser:

In the next five years, STEM jobs are projected to grow twice as quickly as jobs in all other fields according to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics. While all jobs are expected to grow by 10.4 percent, STEM jobs are expected to increase by 21.4 percent. Similarly, 80 percent of jobs in the next decade will require technical skills.

Editorial:

From the Huffington Post:

By this measure, future STEM jobs represent a huge opportunity to today's students. But to put these numbers into perspective, of the 3.8 million ninth graders in the U.S., only 233,000 end up choosing a STEM degree in college, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This means only 6 percent of ninth graders will become STEM graduates. And of these graduates, women will be even more underrepresented in most STEM fields.

These are alarming statistics. How do we get more young boys and girls to be interested in STEM-related fields? It isn't an easy task. Schools do not always adequately prepare students for these rigorous subjects, and college programs are designed to weed out the less persistent. Nationally, only 41 percent of initial White and Asian American STEM majors who begin a degree in STEM-related fields complete their degree in less than six years.

In addition, societal pressures continue to loom over girls who might otherwise consider the STEM fields. A couple of years ago, I met amazing parents, both of whom had a background in engineering and hoped their 10 year-old daughter would follow in their footsteps. They encouraged her to take an after school science/robotics program. When she got there, she found she was outnumbered 6:1 by boys in the class. As the only girl, she came home crying much of the time because she was teased and told that geeky girls are not welcome in the boys' club. Ironically, by the time young adults are entering college programs in STEM fields, many complain about the lack of gender diversity.

[...]

Source:

Huffington Post

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ivo-lukas/girls-stem_b_1342471.html

Date:

March 14, 2012

Affiliate:

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What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

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