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Association for women in science1/27/2024 ![]() Please tell us about how AWIS was founded. As a result, society loses out on an incredible pool of talent, and the impact that their distinctive voices and expertise could bring to helping solve the problems facing the world today. And many decide that their mental health, self-esteem, and potential to make meaningful contributions based on their capabilities can be better served in a career outside of STEM. Women of color, non-binary women, and those with special needs face additional, compounded barriers.Īll of this leads to women feeling unwelcomed, discouraged, and exhausted. They receive lower compensation, smaller offices, and fewer promotions and they don’t see themselves reflected in the leadership of their institutions or companies. They can be intentionally left off emails and meeting invitations, ignored in the meetings they do attend, or otherwise be made to feel invisible. Women working in STEM are not always attributed credit when deserved. AWIS researchers analyzed data from the 2017 NSF Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System and found that among the primary reasons that women with STEM degrees leave STEM-related jobs are inequities in pay, under-recognition and utilization of their expertise, lack of opportunities for promotion and leadership, and hostile day-to-day working conditions. Our work at AWIS shows that numerous cultural and systemic biases and barriers negatively impact women when they enter the STEM workplace. Why are women underrepresented in the STEM workforce? The Association for Women in Science (AWIS) is a global network that inspires bold leadership, research, and solutions that advance women in STEM, spark innovation, promote organizational success, and drive systemic change. Our inability to retain women who are trained in STEM is therefore negating the investment that we are making in educating and recruiting women in STEM fields. In other words, women leave the STEM workforce after they have expressed an interest in STEM, have gone through rigorous programs to develop their knowledge, earned college-level degrees (and beyond), and have entered the workforce. Women earn over 40% of STEM degrees, yet only comprise 26% of the STEM workforce. Women who are STEM graduates remain in STEM-related occupations at half the rate of men. Why? Because our research at AWIS shows that beyond building the pipeline of women in STEM, we must pay equal – and perhaps greater – attention to the issue of supporting, retaining, and fully utilizing the talent of the women we have trained to enter STEM fields. While the investment in education is certainly important, I would argue that just investing in adding women to the talent pipeline will not enable significant progress in closing the talent gap. Related: Women Breaking the Glass Ceiling in STEM Fields And the emphasis on the supply side has meant that for years we have been making investments in STEM education for girls – building the pipeline – as the strategy for growing the talent pool. Given that women represent half of the world’s population, the inclusion of women in the STEM talent pool is not just an issue of social justice – it is a social and economic imperative.īecause the demand for STEM talent has been growing faster than the availability of STEM talent in the workforce, we have attributed the gap to a supply problem: there is a limited or leaky ‘pipeline’ of up-and-coming talent, especially among women. According to a 2019 study by the Brookings Institution, the availability of STEM talent will be the key to our ability to solve these challenges. Our ability to solve these challenges will have major social and economic implications for decades to come. The sectors that comprise STEM provide many of the solutions, products, services, and tools to address what we call ‘global grand challenges’: managing pandemics, such as COVID-19 access to water, food, and basic resources reversing climate change, etcetera. ![]() To start, explain why the STEM sectors are so important, and why women are key for meeting the demand for skilled workers in these areas.
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