Where are the Girls in STEM 2022
Educate a girl in STEM, and change the world.
We celebrated National STEM Day on November 8th.
Looking back at our post in 2021, we hoped to see an improvement in opportunities for girls in STEM.
Solutions for Closing the STEM Gap for Girls
AAUW suggests solutions to the STEM gap for girls:
- Give girls and women the skills and confidence to succeed in math and science.
- Improve STEM education and support for girls starting in early education and K-12.
- Work to attract, recruit and retain women into STEM majors and fields in colleges and universities.
- Improve job hiring, retention, and promotion pathways and intentionally inclusive cultures.
The Girl Scouts offers girls encouragement from role models, mentors, and even STEM badges to shift their focus toward STEM subjects.
The Gender Gap in STEM
We need a halt to systematically discouraging girls and women from science and math throughout their eductions, limiting their training and opportunities in STEM fields.
The National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) summarizes the most compelling statistics and research on the state of girls and women in STEM, focused on K-12 Education, Higher Education, and the STEM Workforce.
Women remain underrepresented in the science and engineering workforce, with the most significant disparities in engineering and computer sciences. Women constitute 48% of the total workforce and 36% of the STEM workforce (with only 26% in Computer and Mathematical Sciences).
Supply and Demand in Cybersecurity
The gender gap in STEM mirrors the gender gap in cybersecurity fields. Cybersecurity Ventures reported 3.5 million cybersecurity job openings in 2021 will remain in 2025. We are not closing the talent gap in cybersecurity jobs.
As a cyber subject matter expert, I am keenly aware of the shortage of available talent needed to fight cyberattacks. We need to inspire more students, men, and women, to consider STEM studies with the hope that some of them will become much-needed cybersecurity experts in the future.
Image by Alan 9187 on Pixabay
Disclaimer
This blog post is made available for informational purposes and is not intended as a substitute for professional or legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed or implied between you, the author, or the website publisher.
