Gloria Steinem, the iconic spokeswoman for the feminist movement in the late 1960s, said it best when she made her most powerful statement,
“We have become the men we want to marry.”
It’s true, we women can do anything we put our mind to. We're no longer looking to marry young and start raising children – instead many of us decide to focus on ourselves and on building our careers. We're earning higher positions in the workforce and in the government than ever before. I think women empowering groups have played a huge role in society, from not being able to obtain a college education to now earning 60 percent of bachelor’s degrees.
Yes, women have come a long way but I think there is more to be done. According to The New York Times, only 20 percent of women receive degrees in computer science, 20 percent in physics and 18 percent in engineering.
Why are science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), still male-dominated fields? Maybe we should take a look into how girls and boys are raised differently. The stigma against women in STEM starts before she decides on a college to attend and a major to pursue. When we're younger, girls are constantly looked at as fragile and more delicate than boys.The negative stigma around girls trying new things and exploring started before they decided what college to attend or what major in college she wants to pursue – it starts before she even reaches middle school.
When boys are younger they are often praised as being "tough" and "fearless." Parents want their sons to go outside and explore, build Lego houses and race remote control cars. Girls are constantly looked at more fragile and less rugged. Parents often want to keep them safe and guarded. They play house with dolls or an Easy Bake Oven and are frowned open when they make a mess or get dirty.
Boys are pushed to spark an interest in STEM fields without even realizing it. There are many jobs that are labeled a "man's job." According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), women in STEM fields are paid 78 percent of what men were paid doing the same job. Why is this?
Women in their careers worked just as hard as men to get there, if not more due to the stigma around women in the workforce. I think more women in the STEM fields would benefit everyone involved. Every individual is unique and has their own ideas. You can categorize people by genders, race, religion, etc., but why? By blending more of a diversity among a work environment together you can create more ideas and see more sides of situations.
There are many programs around the country with a mission is to introduce girls to STEM, showing girls that they can be an engineer, an astronaut, an architect or whatever "man job" they want to have, they can get. Throughout history, women have grown and we should continue to do so.
"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning" -Gloria Steinem
