Women in STEM - supporting the next generation

In February I had the opportunity to attend training for a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) ambassador programme focusing on unconscious bias in the field. Getting children into science subjects can be difficult, but its especially to difficult to retain STEM options for girls when they are making choices about their futures and routes into higher education.

 

I was surprised to find out there’s still a particularly low level of success getting girls into physics at university. Those who study the subject at GCSE and A-Level often (50%) go into maths.

The People Like Me campaign has been set up to support getting girls into STEM subjects. Girls have different motivators for their decisions, especially decisions made when choosing subjects for GCSEs, and the campaign shows them experts with similar personality traits and aptitudes to themselves who are happy and successful working in STEM fields.

 

The People Like Me Campaign is partnered with Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and it offers to support and create STEM ambassadors with training and guidance.

 

As an individual who left school at 15, I did not get the chance to achieve a Science GCSE. Science GCSEs are not fully funded post-16 for those who do not achieve them earlier, so if students do not develop an interest in sciences before 14 there is a lot working against them if they develop this interest later.

A notable point of research mentioned as part of the training was the key differences in how females and males are likely to talk about themselves. When asked what three things would they use to describe themselves, males are more likely to use verbs, while females are more likely to use adjectives. Interestingly though, women working in STEM are more likely to use verbs, as they typically care more about the things they have achieved than being praised for their behaviour.

 

I really loved this session delivered by the Computing and Engineering School, it gave me an insight not only into why getting more girls into STEM is so important, but also my own decisions which eventually brought me to further my career in computing. I’ve now joined WISE and the STEM ambassador programme, and I’m looking forward to helping change the way students see their possible futures in STEM subjects.