1660342907211 Cd1411stempreengineeringcourse300

Is There A Way to Close the STEM Gender Gap?

Nov. 6, 2014

Women may fill almost half of the jobs in the U.S., but when it comes to STEM-related occupations, they only fill about 25 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Women may fill almost half of the jobs in the U.S., but when it comes to STEM-related occupations, they only fill about 25 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Photo Credit: Manufacturing.net

Administrators at Elk Grove High School, located in Elk Grove, a suburb of Chicago, have created a girls-only pre-engineering course to appeal to a wider female student population.

But discrepencies are already taking place. Instead of drawing freshmen girls with high math scores into the Introduction to Engineering Design class, their male counterparts are enrolling.

The question being raised is how to interest these women— who are fully capable of being successful in STEM careers— in classes that will prepare them for STEM jobs.Ā  How can these girls know if they will enjoy this type of career if they aren't even giving themselves an opportunity to explore this option?

What should be done to influence women for STEM? And should administrators remedy this situation without making a pre-engineering course a requirement?

Read the full manufacturing.net article here.

Sponsored Recommendations

Keep your production line moving. Learn how ingress protection extends motor life, cuts failures, and improves uptime in harsh food processing conditions.
Learn how to evolve your machine design and engineering capabilities with real-world, practical use cases of ML and GenAI.
Discover how IO-Link-enabled piezoelectric vibration sensors are transforming machine health monitoring offering deeper insights, fewer installation hurdles, and smarter maintenance...
Get some peace of mind and a higher level of protection into your machine designs with a comprehensive guide to machine safety. From the evolution of integrated safety logic to...