Underrepresentation In STEM Fields

Underrepresentation of Women in STEM Fields In high school my math and science classes were dominated by my female classmates. They strived for excellence and showed that they are hard workers. I was extremely intimidated by all of the intelligent women. I assumed they would all go to college and become the next science or math geniuses. There were so many smart girls I figured there would be so much female competition in STEM fields at college. Now that my classmates and I have gone to college, I am noticing that most of them are being pushed away from STEM fields in which they thrived at in high school. Almost every girl that I thought would become the next Einstein ended up choosing a less difficult career or one that was more suitable

There are so many stories about how women struggle in the math and science fields that it is causing even more to be discouraged to even attempt one of these career paths. When asking for advice many women are told that math and science fields are too difficult for a woman. Discouraging women is causing many of them to give up their hopes and dreams of pursuing a valuable career. I think our world would be better off with more intelligent people in STEM fields. So I’d like to know why are we turning away so many of these brilliant minds? Many problems could of been avoided if we easily allowed women into STEM fields. A great example is the first airbags for vehicles. The airbags were designed and created entirely by men, so they forgot to account for how the airbag would function when deploying onto a female with large breasts. It was not found out until after the airbags were already into circulation that large breasts caused the airbags to thrust upwards and slam into the driver’s face and neck, killing them instantly. Many casualties and injuries could of been avoided in this case if women were instead encouraged into the math and science fields. Women can not only bring equal intelligence, but also a different perspective that we should

They are being incorrectly taught what is and is not suitable for their gender role. They should be free to choose whatever they want to do as their gender. Holly Devor, professor of sociology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, states that our notions of what it means to be male or female are socially constructed in her article “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender”. In the article Devor stated that “both males and females are popularly thought to be able to do many of the same things, but most activities are divided into suitable and unsuitable categories for each gender class.” What she means is that even though it is widely accepted that men and women can perform equally as well at many activities, some of these activities are deemed inappropriate for one gender, but proper for the other gender. Girls should be allowed to play with trucks and boys with dolls if that is wants they want. Women should feel free to play football and men to be a ballet dancer. It should not matter. If people were not assigned strict gender roles, more women might actually pursue a challenging career in math and science instead of being being pushed towards jobs deemed more suitable for them by