"Women in STEM" is a commonly used phrase, especially in the computer science field. It refers to how the vast majority of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) spaces are filled with men. It has always been something that I have heard people talk about, but it has not been something that I have experienced first-hand until entering the computer science world.
In all of the STEM fields combined, the percent of women is about 44%. 26% of people in computer sciences and technology careers are women and 16% of the engineering field is women according to catalyst.org. Another set of data from the World Economic Forum is shown on the right. So, as that data shows you, the STEM careers are commonly dominated by men. In my opinion, this is troubling due to the lack of representation. Personally, seeing a lack of people like me makes me feel out of place. Knowing that I would be in the minority of most STEM fields can be very discouraging.
I have had a few different experiences with being a woman in male-dominated STEM areas. First, when I began to learn more about computer science, I did a week-long day-camp at Macalester College, in St. Paul, MN. There, I learned about coding using Python. As soon as I arrived at the campus, I immediately noticed that there were almost no girls. Specifically, I was 1 of 3 girls out of the 10 students in the classroom. It was disheartening and I felt like I was being treated as if I was below the other boys.
Secondly, as I have mentioned in other posts, I am currently in Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles at my high school. As you would expect, the class is mostly boys. I am 1 of 6 girls in the 29 student class. In other words, about 20% of the students are women. In this class, I have had a very similar experience to my time at Macalester College. Time and time again, there is a lack of respect between the boys and the girls in the class and I always sense that the boys do not respect my opinions or anything I have to say about computer science.
But this is not a new experience. From the birth of computer science, women working on the ENIAC programming project went unrecognized. Kay McNulty, Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Meltzer, Fran Bilas, and Ruth Lichterman worked on the ENIAC during the 1940s, but were not given the proper recognition until the 1980s. These women, who were also known as human computers, experienced many more obstacles and were faced with a lot more disrespect than I could ever understand or will ever encounter.
All in all, women involved in STEM have experienced many difficulties for a long time. Thankfully, more and more women and girls are becoming more involved in those fields and are increasing the representation for young girls in the future. Although there may never be equal ratios in STEM fields, progress is being made. Hopefully careers like data science will have more women.
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