Tackling gender stereotypes in STEM

I recently took part in the Women in Science Symposium hosted by Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. The morning had a focus on female participation in STEM in schools. It was interesting to note how much the individual contributions converged in terms of analysing the issues and identifying the barriers for girls wishing to progress to A level physics particularly, but also STEM careers generally.

Discussions focused on the undergraduate experience of women in STEM and the value of women being more visible in the STEM labour market. There is evidence that female engineering undergraduates often feel that they are an excluded minority and experience both covert and overt discrimination. However, at the heart of engineering are creativity and innovation, which girls claim they want from a job – but this is rarely recognised in popular discourse around career choices at school.