Tens of thousands of scientists are missing.
And technologists, engineers and mathematicians.
Wait, what? Where did they go?
Well, you see, it’s not about where they went, but rather that they never came into being.
Who’s Missing from STEM?
For the most part, women. According to recent data, females make up only 28% of the workforce in STEM, while males make up 72%. Here’s why that’s problematic.
STEM careers typically pay well—particularly engineering and medicine. But only 15% of engineers are women. And only 21% of health executives and board members have two X chromosomes (A.K.A. are gals). This means swaths of women are missing out on high compensation and future-oriented jobs.
The worst part is, when a woman works her way into one of these highly technical and competitive fields, she can expect to be underpaid:
Men in STEM have annual salaries nearly $15,000 higher per year than women ($85,000 compared to $60,828). And Latina and Black women in STEM earn around $33,000 less (at an average of around $52,000 a year).
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Why Is This a Thing?
Specifically, why the huge gap between the two genders?
Research tells us that the greatest divide is at the undergraduate level. Across American college campuses, only 21% of engineering majors are women. And computer science ranks even lower, with just 19% female majors. (A particularly worrisome stat, considering 80% of STEM jobs are now in computing…)
While the problem presents itself most obviously in college, it starts far before then. Studies find “the biggest drop off of girls in computer science is between the ages of 13 and 17.”
So if you want to change the trajectory, you’ll have to target teenagers.
Will The Numbers Ever Change?
Yes, thanks to these two organizations.
The AIM-HI Accelerator Fund is an independent 501(C)(3) non-profit organization, established with an initial grant from the National Foundation for Cancer Research with the vision to accelerate the translation of cancer drug discoveries by investing in seed-stage companies.
They’re helping females in STEM through their annual Women’s Venture Competition. Which is “a first-of-its-kind program that provides funding, coaching and networking opportunities to women-led oncology start-ups” according to their website.
AIM-HI also runs a robust student ambassador program, encouraging high school girls to dive deeper into science, engineering, tech, and math!
This international non-profit organization is on a mission to close the gender gap in tech! And it’s working. Since their founding in 2018, Girls Who Code has had over 450,000 female high school and college students participate in their programs.
Their website reads: “The gender gap in tech has been getting worse, but Girls Who Code is changing that. Our alumni go on to major in Computer Science at 15X the national average.” Now that’s what we call awesome!
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The website you’re on now has an ongoing campaign entirely devoted to encouraging and helping finance programs and tuitions for girls and women in STEM. Want to see more female coders, technicians, mathematicians, and scientists? Then click here!