Girls & Stem - Bridging The Gap

Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) subjects and activities are in vogue.

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There is immense choice for afterschool activities and summer programmes in robotics, programming and aeromodelling. However, we noticed that many girls are veering away from pursuing pure sciences in shcool and college and do not show much enthusiasm for STEM activities. This is worrisome, and needs to be addressed. In this article, the causes of this trend, and explore ways and means to tackle it.

STEM subjects and girls – Some shocking statistics In the pursuit of developing the younger generation into a better workforce, capable of solving societal problems through the use of Science, Technology and Engineering and to compete for greater economic growth in the 21st century, significant importance has been placed on the role of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) based educational programmes across the globe.

This has resulted in many schools offering STEM-based clubs for students to actively participate and learn, during the school hours and within the school campus. Apart from schools there are organisations that offer various workshops and after-school programmes for children to explore and learn about robotics, coding, aeromodelling, ¬drone building and other such activities. Parents are enthusiastic and keen to support their children in this journey, more so in urban areas, where there is an abundance of such offerings and the financial backing to support such interests.

However it is alarming and at the same time disheartening to see that very few girls opt for these programmes when compared to boys. This trend in turn results in fewer women in the workforce and research in STEM fields. According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)’s fact sheet 2018, the average share of female researchers in the STEM fields is only a meagre 28.8% for the entire world.