Often when we think of a physicist, astronomist, or chemist we tend to imagine a white man in a white lab coat. Why? There are many women in the science, technology, engineering, and math, or S.T.E.M. for short, fields aren’t there? Well, many reports suggest that there are not as many women in the S.T.E.M. fields.
Yet, there have been many successful women in science fields. Many women as, Rosalind Franklin, Marie Curie, Virginia Apgar, Sara Seager, Maryam Mirzakhani, Emily Levesque, Nina Tandon, Katherine Freese, Jennifer Doudna, Elizabeth Holmes, and Cori Bargmann to name a few. However, when we hear of S.T.E.M. awards being given they are often to men. Only 18 women have won a Nobel Prize for their work in the fields of medicine, chemistry, and physics. Yet, there have been more than a hundred men to win a Nobel prize in these same fields.
Many of these fields are male dominated. Even though the number of women in these fields, like in biology, is often greater than men. Why is this? Well, it could be because as a society, we still think that men are more adept in these fields than women are. We encourage men to pursue these careers, telling women that they should choose fields that are less rigorous.
Over the past few years, girl have been encouraged to be part of S.T.E.M. programs, often proving to be better than boys. Yet, as we continue on to higher education we find the number of women in the S.T.E.M. fields diminishing. Why are women being discouraged from these fields?
As parents, professors, and society as a whole we should encourage women to pursue their passion whether it be in physics or fashion design.