WOMEN IN STEM — Past to Present. This blog takes you on a brief journey…
Tags: Women in STEM, Women Empowerment, Women In Tech, STEM, Technology

LOOKING INTO….

STEM which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics has been the “male-dominated” field for many years. Over the years that we have been to school, we have often heard about a male scientist name in the field of STEM than a female scientist. According to UIS data, less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. Women in STEM has become an initiative thoroughly pursued to encourage girl students all over the world to be a part of this community.

PAST TO PRESENT…

Right from women scientists To Youyou, Katherine Johnson, Marie Curie, Maryam Mirzakhani to the recent women in science, it was never an easy path yet, they were able to overcome many hindrances to establish themselves as a renowned figure. The world has advanced tremendously from moderating women’s admission in technical institutions to applauding recent Nobel Laureates Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for their work in the field of technology. Nevertheless, there’s a long way to go before achieving equal status, opportunity, and pay.

Marie Curie in her lab

SITUATION RIGHT NOW…

According to a report by Business-Standard.com, India ranks 5th lowest in having women in top tech leadership positions. It is found that for every 3 men engineers there is one woman engineer in India, which makes women engineers only 26% of the whole. Most of the women shift to managerial positions which shows that STEM attracts women less. When many technology companies are rumored to be the ‘boys club’, many organizations took a step forward to remove the gender gap in their organizations. Some of the opportunities for women in STEM are listed below:

Codess — Codess is a community for female coders initiated by Microsoft. It was established to explore ways to promote gender diversity in the engineering field. Through Codess Microsoft offers internship opportunities to women.

CodHERS — Adobe has come up with women only hackathons like CodHERS to celebrate women in STEM. They claim it to be a hunt for the brightest women developers and coders in India through a series of algorithmic programming challenges.

Protégé Sponsorship Initiative — Intel runs the Protégé Sponsorship Initiative, which aims to create development opportunities for select senior technical women employees by mapping each of them to a senior leader as sponsors. Intel has a public-private WiSci to bring together girls from diverse cultures to create technology solutions for positive social impact in their communities. MakeHers is also an initiative engaging girls and women in STEM through making, creating, and inventing.

— by mapping each of them to a senior leader as sponsors. Intel has a public-private WiSci to bring together girls from diverse cultures to create technology solutions for positive social impact in their communities. DevelopHER –It’s an All-Female Innovation Challenge by Accenture. DevelopHER is a series of weeknight learning sessions about New I.T. and a 24 — hour hackathon that will allow you to develop game-changing innovations, for women, by women.

Change the Game — Change the Game is an initiative from Google Play to support and empower women as game players and creators. By conducting ongoing research, inspiring youth engagement, partnering with forward-thinking organizations, and spotlighting stories of success, we seek to improve representation in the mobile gaming world and create meaningful change in the industry.

THE REAL PROBLEM

Everyone likes to be heard and be listened to and, that is what I reckon is about Women in STEM — To not just be a part of it but heard and listened to. To be there and feel included in this community. To be given equal opportunities for them to test their potential. To be appreciated and recognized for their efforts.

Women constitute merely 14% of the total 280,000 scientists, engineers, and technologists in research development institutions in India, according to the United Nations. Even if they can get a job in this field, they often have to face a lot more challenges to carry out their job. Role models in leadership like Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg and HP’s Meg Whitman and coding like Marissa Mayer establish and encourages women’s participation and motivate us to believe even women can achieve such pinnacles in the field of technology.

Though many initiatives have been launched to increase women’s participation in STEM unless until there is no significant change brought in the working culture and the way a girl child is raised it seems to be a long way goal.

OTHER INITIATIVES:

SAGA is a global UNESCO project supported by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

The general objective of SAGA (STEM and Gender Advancement) is to contribute to reducing the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in all countries at all levels of education and research, by determining, measuring and assessing sex-disaggregated data, as well as supporting the design and implementation of policy instruments that affect gender equality in STEM.

The SERB-Power Fellowship offers a personal fellowship and a research grant to top-performing women researchers for a period of three years, while the SERB — Power Research Grants ensure funding to undertake highly impactful research across all disciplines of Science & Technology. The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) is a body under the Department of Science and Technology, India.

offers a personal fellowship and a research grant to top-performing women researchers for a period of three years, while the ensure funding to undertake highly impactful research across all disciplines of Science & Technology. The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) is a body under the Department of Science and Technology, India. Beyond Government Initiatives, NGO’s are playing a very important role in increasing awareness and educating more women in the field of STEM like 1000 Girls-1000 Futures, the Scientista Foundation and Million Women Mentors in North America, hEr VOLUTION, the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology in Canada, Destination Imagination in Singapore, the National Association for Women Entrepreneurs in Malaysia, Indian Girls Code in India and many other initiatives developed for women to pursue a career in STEM.

WHAT WE CAN DO?

We should stand tall, stand as an inspiration to all aspiring young girl engineers, and make them believe a career in STEM is not a farfetched dream.

Generate awareness that — It starts from there when the child takes their first step and learn to use things, stereotyping activities would hinder (if any) her passion for STEM. They have to explore everything themselves to ignite their passion for something and not settle for anything else just to fit the standards of society. Stories of such prominent women scientists in STEM must be told to them to inspire them to be part of STEM.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — This blog is an excerpt from me for all girls in STEM out there.

Disclaimer: All the factual data has been taken from verified sources.