How to bridge the gender gap in STEM

 How to bridge the gender gap in STEM

STEM is the acronym that defines all the fields related to science, technology, engineering and maths. However, only 1 person on 5 working in these fields are women. We can ask ourselfs, "Why there so few women working in STEM fields ? "

Well, there are many reasons that discourage women from working in those fields. First, the fact that it is already predominantly male reduces the motivation, but it's far from be the only reason. Women working in STEM fields have a lower salary and fewer opportunities to be promoted compared to men. But this motivation to work in the field of science is suffocate from childhood because of stereotypes. Little girls often have toys that are less stimulating for science and at the level of orientation they are often discouraged to take the scientific path by parents and teachers. Moreover, there are many less women scientific models to motivate them. Only 17 women won a Nobel Prize in science with Marie-Curie who obtained two of them against 565 men.

Even if between 2015 and 2017 we observed an evolution from 1 person on 7 to 1 person on 5, there still a big gender gap in STEM. We need women who want to work in science because one of the goals of STEM is sustainable development and therefore gender equality. Women must be able to change the world in the same way as men.

To fill the gender gap in STEM and motivate women to join the field of science, joining EDF's PRETTY CURIOUS campaign could be a good idea. Pretty Curious aims to inspire teenage girls to imagine a future where they use science, technology, engineering and maths to help make the difference. Their program of activities wants to change the perception of STEM and open their eyes to the varied career opportunities available if they pursue STEM subjects at school and beyond.

To conclude, to reach a future with no gender gap we need women to work into STEM fields to help the world to move forward by creating new things to make science progress and show that women can do the same things as men.

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