Encouraging Girls in Science: What Works? Catherine Jay Didion STEM Think Tank November 13, 2008 Nashville, Tennessee

 Assumptions and stereotypes about who does science and engineering still exist

Sept. 22, 2008

Gender – Science Implicit Association Test (

Summer 2008 Electronics Conference Advertisement: Meet the XJTAG Girls

Underrepresented minority share of S&E degrees, by degree level and field: 2000 or 2001

Women as a Percentage of Selected Occupations, 2005

Freshman Engineering Enrollments: No Progress

Engaging Females in the Engineering (2004 data) Engineering- Ready H.S. Seniors Freshman Engineering Students Engineering Baccalaureates Engineering PhDs 61% of Males57% of Females 84% Male 16% Female 80% Male 20% Female 83% Male 17% Female © 2006 WEPAN, Prepared by CPST,

How do we keep them away? Lack of integration of STEM courses with other parts of the curriculum Contributions of women and minorities are virtually invisible (role models?) Much of the science & engineering work seems devoid of any social relevance Constrained curriculum with many critical paths Busch-Vishniac and Jarosz, “Can Diversity in the Undergraduate Engineering Population be Enhanced Through Curricular Change?” Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, Vol. 10, 2004

Engineering is stressful and challenging Stress the importance of SUPERIOR math and science abilities “ It’s not easy—but if you’re the type who when faced with a problem some would call impossible is even more driven to move mountains to find a solution, then you might have it in you to be an engineer.” What Engineers Tell Young People

The current messages that emphasize “the necessity of superior math and science skills” and the notion of “a challenging and stressful career” are not relevant to high school girls’ ambitions. Huge Disconnect!!!

Assumptions about who will be the future leaders in science and technology impact students’ choices. An example is this full page ad in the February 17, 2006 Chronicle of Higher Education for CDW-G and its slogan -- “The Right Technology Right Away”

So What do We do?

Engineer Girl!   Top 3 sites on Google for “engineer” and #1 site for “engineering and girls”  Middle school focus  On average over 60,000 unique visitors a month  First person stories with a gallery of >100 women who will answer questions.

Students Value Electronic Engagement The Washington Post, Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Sources of Electronic STEM  ITunes – science section  You Tube – Large Hadron Rap EojtM EojtM  Facebook – women in science groups

Overview of Extraordinary Women Engineers Project  $1.6 million joint effort by WGBH, ASCE, NAE & others to influence collegiate bound high school girls to consider engineering. Funding from NSF & corporate sponsors.  Activities include website (NAE), videos & TV production (WGBH), and specific activities geared to girls, guidance counselors, and engineers.

Nationwide Online Survey  Survey of 440 college bound girls and boys between ages to test messages, taglines and messengers of information about engineers and careers in engineering.  330 interviews among girls.  Margin of error +/- 5.4%

Results from Survey: Engineering as a Career – “for someone like you”  Engineering as a Career – Engineering ranks last on professions tested behind teacher, doctor, lawyer, and business.  51% of boys versus 29% of girls say it would be a good or very good profession.  Non-white girls (41%) are more likely than white girls (25%) to say engineering is a good career.

Enjoyable “How happy I will be—what’s the point of doing anything you don’t like?” Good working environment “If I can’t interact with people…I will probably drop the job.” To make a difference “That I would make a difference in some way, you know, make my mark on the world.” Income “As shallow as it sounds, money is the one thing I have to consider when I’m choosing a job. I’m not going to do something that I know can’t help me pay bills.” Flexibility “My career can’t consume all of my time…I need free time to do a lot of other things…before I die.” What High School Girls Want

Message Testing  For girls one of the strongest messages was: Live Your Life, Love What You Do. 42% of girls & 41% of boys rated this very appealing and 82% somewhat appealing. Top tested message among non-white girls (44%).  Other top messages were: Creativity Has its Rewards and A World of Difference.

Career Exploration Starts at Home  Moms critical to students’ perceptions of careers – 69% of girls & 67% of boys say they have spoken with their moms “a lot” about their future careers.  Girls are also twice as likely to speak with their fathers (62%) then boys (32%).  Boys are twice as likely to have spoken about careers with female friends rather than male friends.

Sources of Information on Engineering  More teens would trust “an older, experienced engineer” as a source for information than any other source.  More girls would trust a “20-something woman who is beginning a career in engineering” than a 20-something male at the same point in his career.  Popular personalities such as Will Smith, Reese Witherspoon, America Ferrara, and Kelly Clarkson were not trusted by girls for information on careers.

Challenges: Culture Fit as a Mechanism of Exclusion  Companies Often recruit and select people for culture fit: "It makes sense to hire people who will fit the culture, possibly even trading off some immediate skills necessary for the specific entry job for better culture fit. People can learn new skills; establishing culture fit is much harder" (Source: Jennifer Chatman and Sandra Cha, “Leading by Leveraging Culture” in California Management Review, Summer 2003.)

“ A lot of the work we’ve done is to change people’s perception of the potential of the students.” --Robin Casselman, UC Irvine

What Can You Do?  Encourage the young women in your life.  Be a catalyst for providing opportunities for students to meet engineers and explore careers  Incorporate research on gender into your programs and activities. Use resources available including  Stay in touch and share with us your ideas –

Contact information: /