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Sarah Vitarisi

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

14 February 2019

Topic Proposal: The Gender Gap in STEM Fields

Introduction/Overview

For my inquiry project, I will be examining the gender gap in Science, Technology,

Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields and the causation behind it. As a STEM major, I want to

know more about why women are so underrepresented. The percentage of women in STEM

fields is significantly lower than the percentage of men.

According to La Trobe University’s Nest’s article 83% of Women Leave their STEM

Careers: We’re Changing That, “women make up just 17 per cent of the people who continue on

in a long term career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.” This percentage is

significantly lower compared to other majors. Big companies, such as Microsoft and Google

have created different programs and done intensive research on why this is.

Why Do Girls Lose Interest in STEM? New Research Has Some Answers – and What We

Can Do About It by Suzanne Choney, a digital storyteller at Microsoft, discusses the reasons

behind the gender gap and ways to better support girls in STEM. Some reasons include lack of

role models, peer pressure, misperception about the areas, and lack of support from parents and

teachers. Kids at young ages are extremely influenced by the people around them. More support

needs to go into encouraging girls. Choney gives the examples of providing teacher with

better/more STEM curriculum, increasing the number of female role models, and creating

inclusive classrooms that value female opinion.

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Choney also mentions other co-workers with similar experiences. Peggy Johnson is now

Microsoft’s executive vice president of business development. She may have never made it this

far if she listened to the wrong people. Johnson tells a story of how she started her engineering

career. She was bringing mail to one of the engineering buildings on campus and the ladies

behind the desk were so happy to see another female, they started talking all about engineering

and the exciting things that can be done. Johnson talked to her mom and she encouraged her to

give it a try. She had support from her family which allowed for her to believe in herself. Later,

she had a professor tell her that maybe this was not the right degree for her because she asked a

lot of questions to better understand the material. It is teachers like these that cause females to

give up.

According to Nathalia Gjersoe’s Bridging the Gender Gap: Why Do So Few Girls Study

STEM Subjects? “a meta-analysis of gender differences in mathematics, based on 100 studies

and testing more than three million people, found that girls outperformed boys overall in primary

school.” Even though they do better on classwork later in their education, girls do worst on test.

This is believed to do with levels of self-confidence or anxiety towards math. Girls do not

believe they can be good at math so they end up doing worse.

Initial Inquiry Question(s)

• What is the causation of the gender gap in STEM fields?

• Is the gender gap in STEM decreasing?

• Is this prominent in our cultures? If so, why?

• Are males really better at mathematics and sciences than women?

• Do men have different skills that allows them to be more successful in STEM?
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• How does the influence of others cause it?

My Interest in this Topic

This topic is something important to me as an engineering major. I did not start taking

engineering classes until college. The ones offered at my high school was mainly boys and I did

not want to be the only female in the class. Little did I know that that would be like every class I

would take in college. In my engineering specific classes, there has never been more than four

other girls. In the beginning, this fact scared me. I have learned to work with the other males in

my class but form great bonds with the other girls.

The first time I really noticed this gender gap was when I came to UNCC for orientation.

I was in a group with the other engineers, seven guys. During most of the first day, not a single

one of them talked to me, not even my Orientation Councilor. Luckily, one of them was brave

enough to talk to me and we became good friends. Being the only female for those two days was

extremely discouraging. I second-guessed my major choice and going to a school so far from

home where I knew no one. The only thing that got me through was knowing that that group of

guys was only a very small percentage of my college and there had to be other girls.

Being an engineer for only seven months does not mean that I haven’t experienced some

form of discrimination. My intro to engineering course required us to go to a career fair where

we had to dress professionally. In a program I was in to help with the transition from high

school to engineering, we talked about what to wear to this event. My two coaches told me, the

only girl in the room, that I needed to wear my hair up, little to no makeup, and a pants suit: no

skirt. They said I need to look as much like a guy as possible. It is what employers are looking

for. I was taken back by this comment. I felt like I should not have to hide my femininity. I

should be proud of the fact that I am a female engineer and if some company did not want to hire
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me for that then I would not want to work for them. This was my first situation where I really

realized the gender gap.

Since then, I have had more experiences. When rushing a sorority, most girls I talked to

were in liberal studies majors and would tell me I was too smart to talk to them. It was only

when I found someone else in engineering that I felt at home. A male engineer TA who was

giving a review session taught the entire room how to give a proper handshake and said that

females have to prove their credibility from a single handshake.

These are only experiences from a short amount of time. I do not know how many more

I will experience in my career. I want to learn more about this so it does not happen to others. I

have two younger sisters and have worked with girls ages 2-10 since I was 12. I do not want

them to be discouraged from these types of careers. Girls should be taught from a young age that

they can do whatever they set their minds to because it is possible. I hate seeing people give up

on their dreams because of what others say. With this project, I hope to understand more about

why this happens and how we can put an end to it.

Next Steps
To continue my research on my topic, I will first look for academic articles utilizing the

library’s database. I will do more in depth reading about the research Microsoft has done on the

gender gap in STEM by reading Closing the STEM Gap: Why STEM Classes and Careers Still

Lack Girls and What We Can Do About It. I plan to read The Role of Stereotypes Threats in

Undermining Girls’ and Women’s Performance and Interest in STEM Fields to better understand

the effects of different stereotypes on young people. I will also do more research on the

organization Supporting Women in Science. At La Trobe, it was created to help women feel

supported and mentored as they more through their careers in STEM. I would also like to more
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research on the “baby penalty” which is said to happen when a mother wants to take maternity

leave after having a baby.