Underrepresentation is a common theme regarding women in STEM. Currently, the gender gap is ever-present and thriving, with women making up only 28.2% of the global workforce according to World Economic Forum. That gap doesn’t emerge in adulthood. It begins in the place where STEM interest first forms: in a classroom. A pair of girls sat side-by-side in their Intro to Engineering class, surrounded by rows of boys.
“Like a lot of the other girls in engineering at our school, I am one of the only girls in the engineering class,” freshman Brenna Pham said. “So it’s very loud, and I sit next to the only other girl. We also only talk to each other because there isn’t anyone else we can connect to easily.”
Group projects serve as a time for collaboration amongst the set team; however, they can quickly become awkward and frustrating as the girls are outnumbered and overshadowed, their ideas easily set aside and not taken seriously.
“You are usually in groups with a lot of guys, so especially with guys my age, they tend to not always listen and have their own ideas and get frustrated a little easier,” junior Charlotte Hillier said. “So it’s a bit of a challenge to get someone to listen and respect your own ideas.”
The fight to be heard doesn’t end after high school. Instead, this pattern persists well into college. A new environment, but the same atmosphere.
“I have to speak louder,” Meimona Ibrahim, a college student at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, said. “I’ve come to realize that I can put the same amount of effort in as they do, but I just need to make sure that it’s seen. And that can be really hard, because it’s hard to speak up when there’s only a bunch of men in the room, but the moment you do, they take notice.”
College brings forward more women into engineering—new companions to rely on as sisterhood is fostered, another voice in class to speak above the rest.
“I have my friends who are in my year, and we take care of each other,” Ibrahim said. “Before the career fair, we’ll get ready together. We carpool together and do interview prep together. It’s a small community, so you know everyone in that circle.”
The obstacles women face in STEM don’t look the same everywhere. Culture, opportunity and resources vary between all countries, shaping how women enter the workforce.
“In my country, Kenya, it was hard because I didn’t have any other girls or females in my class, and that was scary,” Computer Scientist Dinah Karia said. “But after I left, I worked in the Middle East for about six years, and I got to experience a more diverse region in terms of gender.”
Engineering positions are competitive, and men are often favored. These circumstances feel unjust and can encourage one to give up. However, the final obstacle to overcome is often one’s own mind.
“I make sure that my previous failures would not get in the way of everything else that is coming,” Karia said. “You don’t want to make this one thing be what makes you give up. Instead, you continue observing, planning and trying for something different.”
Having a male-dominated field is a disadvantage, with a lack of different perspectives. More women in this line of work opens new solutions and provides a necessary viewpoint that can prove to be essential when solving problems.
“The limitations of working with only males are that they won’t understand all the problems that need to be addressed,” Karia said. “So you end up not building an application or a system that truly caters to the real problem you’re trying to solve. So with the inclusion of women, you build something with a better goal.”
Despite the challenges at each stage of a woman’s path into STEM, this message rings true: progress comes only to those who begin.
“You’re either going to be the start of something great, or you can look and see every great woman before you who’s done the same thing,” Ibrahim said.
