Research has shown that the gender imbalance in STEM starts when girls/women leave high school. Achievement seems about the same through high school, and higher education is where the differences start showing up. Even though women leave high school at about the same level, they consistently rate their own abilities in STEM as less than male counterparts. This is due to societal bias telling girls and women that they are not good at these subjects, resulting in feelings that they have to be exceptional in order to succeed in STEM. This results in a lower interest in STEM majors when they reach university, and it compounds as you go up to Masters, PhD, teaching, and tenure. It's the same in industry: the higher up in the career ladder, the fewer women there are.
There is a ton of research on this subject, and a Google search was all I needed to find several articles that explain these issues. Here is a pretty comprehensive report issued by the American Association of University Women:
https://www.aauw.org/app/uploads/2020/03/why-so-few-research.pdf
DEI initiatives at the university/professional level can certainly help, but what is needed is for society in general, and the patriarchy specifically, to stop telling girls/women that they are not as good as boys/men. Families, communities, schools, and peers need to consistently encourage and uplift girls/women, and that just does not happen enough to produce anything close to gender balance in STEM. Same goes for other gender diverse and traditionally excluded folks, like non-binary and transgender people!
Who am I to speak about this? DEI in STEM is a passion and a need for me, both professionally and personally. I am a woman who is mixed race, multiply disabled, queer, and transgender, and I'm somehow still around in this field after almost 20 years. I've written several articles and given a series of talks with materials societies on the subject of DEI issues in STEM. My stubborn persistence keeps me going, and I am a willing public figure to show other traditionally excluded folks that a career in STEM is not only possible for them, but achievable and sustainable.
But I can't do it alone.
Like Veronique said, I also encourage you to join a DEI committee, employee resource group, community group, or any effort that uplifts underrepresented people. It is one of the easiest things you can do to get started on fixing these trends. If you are used to volunteering at ASM, then the IDEA committee (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Awareness) would be a great place to start. There are also subcommittees within that group for different intersectionalities of women, racialized people, LGBTQ+ folks, etc. To get started in the IDEA committee, you can contact vicki.burt@asminternational.org or nicole.hale@asminternational.org.
I appreciate you reading this far, and I welcome you in your efforts to support traditionally excluded people in STEM!
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Gee Abraham
STEM Communicator
https://www.linkedin.com/in/geeabraham/
Gee@GeeAbrahamEdits.com
IMS Board of Directors
MMA Editorial Board
IDEA Committee
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-24-2023 16:46
From: Suhas Eswarappa Prameela
Subject: Encouraging more female graduate students
How do we encourage more women graduate students to pursure faculty careers? Despite repeated efforts, there seems to be great imbalance amongst faculty rosters.
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Suhas Eswarappa Prameela
Postdoctoral Fellow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge MA
(480) 277-7204
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