Women in STEM
motivate
so
a couple of days back i was selected to
participate
in the modern world debates a massive
worldwide debate championship and this
competition was round based
so in the first round the motion given
to us the topic
given to us was this house regrets the
popularity
of violent female superhero movies
now my team and i were side
propositioned for this motion
which meant that we were for this motion
so the meat
of our argument was based upon the
premise that
violent female superheroes are negative
role models
because well they’re violent and they
use harmful means of destruction
to find solutions to their problems
and in this process they are extremely
hypersexualized
on the other hand what my team and i
suggested was that we changed this
definition
of what a superhero is depicted as in
our movies that we watch
so we suggested that superheroes are
female
scientists mathematicians and astronauts
women that use their knowledge
and words to change society and not
their fists
now i was pretty happy with my speech
however
my smile turned upside down when a
speaker from side opposition
came up and asked me something he asked
me
would you rather live in a world where
women were shown to be
cooking in the house cleaning the
kitchens and watching their kids
or would you rather live in a world
where women were shown to be violent
and in this process unfortunately
hypersexualized
and that i had to say that you can’t
compare these two depictions of women
because in no way
is one better than the other because a
damsel in distress is equally as worse
as
a violent woman because that is not the
true depiction
of what a woman is and
that got me pondering why is it that we
live in a society where girls and women
like myself
have to turn to violent women to look
for our role models in comparison to
women
in stem stem being science technology
engineering and mathematics and that’s
when i realized
we have a problem you see according to
data from the world bank
women make up 50 percent of the world’s
population
however women make up only 30 percent of
the
entire stem workforce and further
research showed me that by the age of 15
girls tend to lose their confidence in
stem subjects which is completely unlike
their male peers
and what’s even jarring is the fact that
when a group of 16 year old girls
is asked to draw a scientist only
25 percent of them will picture a female
scientist
now you see this lack in confidence is
in no way
inherited however it is a direct result
of the unique challenges women face
while trying to pursue a stem education
or a stem career
and these challenges range all the way
from a lack of representation
to a lack of recruitment because of
fixed mindsets and implicit biases
so now the big question that’s left with
us is that
how do we overcome these obstacles and
most importantly
how do we engage more girls in stem
despite these challenges that
cease to exist so the first solution
that i have to offer is that we start
talking about and celebrating the female
role models in stem
that we know of because most of the
girls interested in stem
don’t know of a woman in a stem career
because of the sheer
lack of representation so in in
in the case that we’re talking about
chemistry it is important that we talk
about
merry curie as much as we talk about
dimitri mendeleev
and when we’re talking about biology it
is important that we highlight rosalind
franklin
as much as we highlight watson and crick
in our textbooks
moving on the second point is that we
start
fostering confidence in stem subjects in
girls
so the reason that is because many
studies show that girls tend to a fixed
mindset when it comes to stem subjects
a fixed mindset is that of i won’t be
able to succeed because i simply lack
the skill or the intelligence
to pursue through this struggle that i’m
facing
so it is important that we as girls
remind ourselves
constantly and other girls out there
trying to pursue stem
that struggle is an important part of
the learning process
because with a growth mindset instead of
a fixed mindset
we too can persevere through these
intellectual challenges that we face
just like our male counterparts do
because you see
the future of science conservation
innovation
and technology is completely dependent
on the unique contributions and ideas
that we bring on to the table
so in order for us to create and in
order for us to innovate
we really need a diverse range of people
bringing
their unique backgrounds experiences and
exposures
to the table and that’s how we’re going
to innovate
and when we have that barrier of gender
what we’re doing is we’re essentially
reducing our capacity of producing
the best possible outcome there can be
lastly it is important that we as women
remember that we too can pursue any of
those careers in stem
just like boys and men can however i
understand that this can be
difficult given the sheer lack of
representation
so a tactic i like to personally use is
building my own support group
so my support group consists of my
parents
my teachers my family members friends
and even classmates these are people
that support me throughout the unique
challenges
that i face in my journey through stem
girls and women can be whoever and
whatever they want to be
however we still see more boys and men
in the stem field
and this is because many girls and women
self-select out of stem
because of the gender stereotypes that
they’re conforming to
so we really need to make it normal
for girls to be interested in stem and
developing positive links and
establishing links
to positive female stem identities
is a huge driving force that pushes
girls to see
and realize from that there are these
really cool jobs out there
it has been proven time and time again
that we as women in no way lack the
skill or the intelligence
to succeed in the stem field however
what we do need are resources and equal
opportunities
only then can we excel like no other and
bring about changes
in our societies because we as women
have been able to create technologies
that have
won nobel prizes like jennifer donna did
with
jennifer dorner and emmanuel charpentier
did with crispercast9
all the way to sending probes to mars
like the uae’s
50 percent women-led hope mission
so it is important that we as women
and everyone sitting here empower
inspire
and connect as many young girls and
women as we can in stem
because that is how we develop our
confidence in our abilities
and that is how we are going to swing
the stem pendulum
in our favor thank you