Hi again :)
This past Tuesday I had the honor of attending ASU's "Women in Engineering" Dinner. While the main goal of the dinner was to get the females in the room to attend ASU, the message ran far deeper. After dinner was served, two females took the stage to share their story.
The first was a female professor at ASU who focuses on recruitment in addition to her regular classess. She told us about the work that she does at ASU and the ways in which the school is willing to help reach out to the females, like those who were sitting in the room, so that they might not only attend ASU but also be bold enough to finish the courses. She prided ASU on having 21% female in the Ira. A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. The national average is just shy of 20%. She contributed this lead to the welcoming faculity and staff because they created a firm support system.
The second person to speak was an alumna who went on to not only successfully pursue a degree in engineering but who also realized what it meant to be a female in the field. As an incoming student she feared the unknown. However, she went on to tell all the future sun-devils in the room that not only are they in good hands at the university but that she gained confidence within the STEM field because of the mentoring and tutoring opportunities that ASU offers females in the field. Above all she went on to say that ASU gave her "the confidence" to do things she "never thought possible."
At ASU specifically, they have a variety of programs, clubs, and organizations geared towards women. This week I plan to compare the different programs across various schools in order to figure out which ones are most successful.
This dinner not only helped me to decide on what school I am attending (GO DEVILSS!!!!) but it helped reaffirm the findings of my project.Thus far I have concluded that, in order for a female to be successful in the STEM fields, she must latch onto the confidence that current society is trying to build in her.
More to come soon! Thank you :)
Very interesting Liz! In STEM fields women are more likely to be hired because companies are seeking them out to start to balance out male to female ratios. I'm just wondering why we don't see many women pursuing these job opportunities if they have an advantage in the hiring process? Also here's a link to the study if your interested :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pnas.org/content/112/17/5360.full
Wow Nic! Thank you for the article. This is a very interesting situation that I've spent a lot of my project trying to figure out. The problem, in my opinion, is that employers will never directly state that they are looking to hire more females because they are required to reduce any gender bias during the hiring process. While there are a variety of instances where it can clearly been seen that employers do not follow this law, no one is going to openly admit to such a fault.
DeleteTo answer your question, I think that women are trying to pursue these job opportunities. By simply beginning the education journey they are showing interest. A variety of factors could play into why there are still job openings that women aren't taking. The hours could be different from what they want, they might need a higher pay, the commute to work could be too far for it to be a reasonable decision etc. However, all of these factors that I just listed are ones that all people take into consideration when approaching a job. Just because there is a job opening doesn't mean it is a logical next step :)
Hope that helped answer you're question a little bit!