There is a Gender Bias in STEM

Image credit to Christina @ wochintechchat.com on Unsplash.com

Women account for less than 29% of all STEM majors in this country. In a country which prides itself on equality for all, why is the STEM gender gap so large? What struggles do women face in this field, and what can they do to fight it?

A study done by Studio Graphene, a tech innovation company, showed that half of the women interviewed (49%) had faced gender discrimination in their STEM fields, and 20% ended up resigning due to these various discriminatory behaviors. These shocking numbers reveal that gender discrmination affects people all around us.

This gender bias even affected my own teacher. Susan Huebsch, a computer science teacher at Langley High School in McLean, VA, detailed her own experience with gender bias when she was studying CS in college. 

“I worked on a project with a male partner and he got sick so I ended up finishing the project alone...the professor proceeded to ask me detailed questions about each part...he just assumed I was the one who hadn’t worked on it,” she recalled. 

Even in areas of learning- safe spaces where everyone is supposed to be helping each other, STEM biases are still clear. Mrs. Huebsch was faced with the stark reality that women in STEM do face gender discrimination. 

“It never occurred to [my professor] that it might have been me that did [the work],” she said. 

And it’s something young people still face, as well. Shriya Mani, a sophomore at Langley High School, recalled recent experiences in which she faced bias in STEM.

“I was previously on a competition CS league, and I also happened to be the only girl on the team. I noticed that my teammates would always brush off my input. They didn’t take me seriously and believed they worked better without what they considered to be my trivial inputs. I told them I felt like they should listen to my approach, since I had experience with a specific problem, and one of the boys said to me ‘What do you know? You’re just a girl. Leave this up to us.’”

The good news is that the world is changing for the better. Movements like the #MeToo movement, which started in the Hollywood scene after movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was exposed as a rapist, and various other feminist movements show the shifting global view on women and historical gender biases. 

In the meantime, there are certain things females can do to fight back against gender discrimination. 

“I think pointing out [bias to people] in a non-confrontational manner is the best way because a lot of times men, or even women, don’t realize their bias. When my husband and I worked together at the same company, I had to point out to a female manager that her offering to send me on a travel project to get my husband to go on it without asking me was insulting, as I had my own career and goals.” said Huebsch. 

And sometimes, simply proving others wrong is enough to get one’s spirits up. 

“I have strived everyday to prove to [others] that being ‘just a girl’ isn’t a bad thing. I soon left the team which dismissed me as a girl, and went on solo to take first place at the competition!” Mani said.

The world is changing but that does not mean everyone around us has changed yet. Our job, as determined women, is to chase our dreams, no matter how many hurdles may lie ahead.