Gender & stem

At Drexel University’s College of Engineering, there is a five-year intensive STEM program, Eureka!, that was created as a partnership between Drexel University and Girls Inc. of Greater Philadelphia and Southern Philadelphia. This program starts with rising eighth grade girls who continue their journey with this program until the end of their high school career; there are usually 50-55 girls admitted to the program each year. These girls attend a 4-week summer program at Drexel each year, and they participate in a multitude of activities. The main goal of this program is to increase the amount of girls that are interested in STEM as a whole, so they focus primarily on the hand-on approach to STEM activities. Click here for more information and to get involved.

Girls Who Code consists of multiple virtual coding-focused STEM programs that reach out to girls or non-binary students in grades nine to twelve. Their main goal is to stop the underrepresentation of women in the computer science field, and the organization claims that they use their platform as a way to both introduce and teach coding to interested girls in a very personalized manner. There are two main programs at Girls Who Code: The 2 Week Summer Immersion Program and the 6 Week Self-Paced Program. Both of these programs require applications, and there are cuts on the amount of people that are allowed to participate due to staffing/advisor availability and the reputation of the site. The main goal of the program is for the students to learn about different aspects of the computing world, such as cybersecurity and Javascript, and then use their knowledge to complete their own programs. Click here for more information and to get involved.

Girls Who Math is a very unique organization, one that I have never seen before. In this program, girls are offered tutoring in mathematical courses that they may need help with, but additionally there are summer programs for math. Girls Who Math also leave sign-ups open for girls that want to take classes throughout the school year; these classes are not necessarily tutoring, so they include conceptual understanding as well. This allows so many girls to get ahead of the curve in a way they previously would not have been able to. The main goal of this program is to reduce the stigma that math and girls have and increase the number of girls who are interested in learning more about math. Click here for more information and to get involved.

The TARGET program at Rutgers University is a week-long age specific program for girls in middle and high school. The program, like most STEM programs, focuses upon the idea of making hands-on activities for the students to complete during their week stay at Busch Campus. TARGET was completed virtually during the pandemic, and they were able to set breakout rooms up with different activities for the different age groups allowing them the ability to still talk to one another and come up with solutions together. The school provides this opportunity for these girls because their main mission is to reduce the amount of stigma around women in STEM related fields.

This article discusses how to bridge the gender gap in STEM fields by encouraging and building a safer and more inclusive space for women. This can be accomplished through greater means of hands-on learning, stereotype challenges, and opportunities for career exploration.

With this article, it is clear that the gender gap in STEM continues to persist even with progressive stands against sexism in the workplace. The article mentions several factors that contribute to the gender gap, and the steps that need to be taken in order to minimize it.

GirlStart is a STEM program partnered with schools in states across the country that want to encourage more girls in this industry. They do this by hosting weekly after school events for girls aged 8-13 in which they are experimenting with hands-on learning and many different STEM lessons. Each one of their after-school sessions begins with an icebreaker and then includes activities as well as reflections and group conversations about the meaning behind the activity. Click here for more information and to get involved.