PreK-12 educators can play a crucial role in closing gaps and creating a more inclusive, equitable STEM workforce. One way to provide all students with opportunities to build their knowledge, skills, and confidence is to de-silo STEM education.

Most real-world problems require interdisciplinary approaches. Integrating science, technology, engineering, and math allows students to see how the subjects they are studying apply in real-world applications.

Having students participate in hands-on activities is a great way to de-silo STEM and spark their interest early. These practical experiences show girls and boys that anyone can do STEM. Digital platforms, such as STEMscopes, can also help teachers support inquiry-based learning and cross-curricular connections in any learning environment.

Another way to break down barriers is to expose students to career connections and diverse role models. This not only makes STEM more relevant, but it helps them see themselves in these fields.

Since most subjects are currently taught separately, de-siloing STEM will require new pedagogical approaches. Professional learning for teachers can ease the transition. Organizations, such as the National Institute for STEM Education, can help with STEM certification programs for teachers and schools, and just-in-time online courses and micro certificates.

All students are capable STEM learners. De-siloing STEM means seeing these subjects for what they are — part of an integrated whole. By creating connections, educators can cultivate a sense of belonging and close STEM gaps for girls and underrepresented groups. Building a diverse, inclusive STEM talent pipeline is essential to solving the world’s most pressing problems. Today’s STEM learner is tomorrow’s STEM leader.

Learn more at stemscopes.com/desilo-stem-education.

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Most people would recognize Loni Love from her stand-up comedy career or her work as co-host on “The Real”. However, Love’s career began in electrical engineering.

“After graduating high school, I immediately got a job at General Motors working on the automobile line,” Love says. “I was in my early 20s and was put in a work group with men in their 40s and 50s. It was a culture shock.”

Love was the only woman working on her team. “In the beginning of my career, being a female in engineering was lonely,” she says, “but I learned a lot from my coworkers, and soon they realized that I was an asset to the group. I would complete my projects well before most of them, and I looked at problems differently, so they started coming to get my advice on issues they couldn’t figure out. Soon I was not the young girl in the group but a reliable member.”

Now that she has the platform to speak to a wide audience, Love is encouraging women to seek out jobs in STEM and not be intimidated by the relative lack of women in certain areas. “Diversity is needed in STEM because there are many issues that affect women differently than men when considering solutions,” she says. “Having women to give their expertise can prove to be valuable.”

STEM workplaces can also do more to encourage women to enter the STEM workforce. Love says the key is making sure women are heard and respected. “Engineering is about providing solutions to make a process better. Women should not have to fight to be acknowledged. Let them do the job they were hired for.”

For women already interested in STEM careers, Love has some simple advice: “Never stop learning about new technologies. Keep moving, and when you need a break, take it.”

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We know that kids who love to learn don’t just prepare for the future — they create it. From the start, Outschool created a platform for kids to become more creative, adaptable, empowered, and inspired. Outschool is dedicated to helping them get there.

School doesn’t have to be about memorizing a list of state capitals or getting bogged down in math equations that are never put to use. Outschool promotes curiosity and a sense of wonder. We connect kids with empathetic and kind teachers who become mentors and diverse peers who share their passion. We empower kids with an endless possibility of fun, unique, and flexible classes. At Outschool, kids are seen, heard, and encouraged. We make sure they have the space to ask questions, the room to share their ideas, and the confidence to explore their creativity.

We offer a world beyond the classroom for kids and teens.

This article has been paid for by Outschool.

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Paula Golden

President, Broadcom Foundation

The movie “Hidden Figures” is about Katherine Johnson, the Black female mathematician who hand-calculated the re-entry trajectory of John Glenn’s historic spaceflight and pioneered coding and software engineering at NASA for decades.  A recent New York Times Magazine article entitled “The Secret History of Women in Coding,” chronicles the journeys of even earlier coding heroines, and the reason behind today’s gender imbalance in tech, especially in coding and software design.

Early women pioneers

Lady Ada Lovelace was the first known female coder. While her brother Lord Byron was fighting wars and writing poetry, Lady Lovelace wrote an algorithm for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine in 1843; the model is on display at the Computer History Museum.

Using symbolic logic learned in her philosophy courses at Wellesley, Mary Allen Wilkes was an early coder at MIT. When state law mandated that Elsie Shutt give up her computing job after giving birth, Elsie founded a “work-from-home” computer company for women with childcare responsibilities, training her female coders after hours on rented computers.

In these days, the men did the early hardware engineering and women were the coders. Women like Hedy Lamarr, Jean Bartik, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper are among the illustrious coding pioneers. From World War II until the 70’s women made up a significant percentage of computer programmers. This changed with the advent of personal computers in U.S. homes in the 70’s, when parents were more likely to buy a PC for their sons — who were twice as likely to receive one. Thus, by the late 1980’s, men were dominating both the hard and soft sides of computer technology, entering college with a leg-up in coding. Popular culture re-enforced this phenomenon by featuring young white men at keyboards. The storied 150-year history of women in computing went dark, depriving women, especially women of color, of a treasure-trove of heroes to admire and follow into the modern Silicon Age.

Women can lead once again

It is time to re-right this ship. Broadcom Foundation is teaming up with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to help women gain equal footing in computer technology and software design through early engagement in coding. The Foundation is taking the following steps to help girls become confident coders before they enter high school and college:

1. Collaborate with Raspberry Pi Foundation to establish Code Clubs, especially in under-resourced communities where kids of all color and first-generation can get a handle on coding at an early age in a safe, non-judgmental environment. Raspberry Pi resources are free to all.

2. Team up boys and girls when they are introduced to coding to avoid the trap that sex defines aptitude, a myth long-disabused by history and science. Working in groups helps boys and girls learn to communicate and problem-solve together, tapping into each other’s creative ideas and learning from their collective mistakes that help build a solid foundation for confident collaboration in the workplace.  Hackathons and meetups provide a wonderful way to expand team-building skills once they get the hang of coding.

3. Work with Science Buddies and other STEM learning resource nonprofits to open the portals to an array of careers that yield coding skills.

4. Build Wikipedia content to include coders “who look like me” with unsung STEM women heroes through WikiEdy.org.

Next to “Hidden Figures,” my favorite movie is “The Martian” where a female computer engineer teams with a young Black physicist to calculate her spaceship’s return to save the stranded astronaut from certain death on the Red Planet. These fictional heroes represent our robust future workforce if everyone joins Broadcom Foundation in introducing all young people — especially women — to the fun and excitement of coding at an early age.

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Shari L. Camhi

Superintendent, Baldwin Union Free School District

Innovation comes from looking at things through varying perspectives and multiple lenses. It is this range of opinion that allows for numerous and various ideas, which is important. In the United States, there are as many girls as boys; in fact, it is almost an even split, with girls at a slight majority. Why would we eliminate more than 50% of a population from engaging in the most critical work, study, and innovation? Careers in STEM encompass today’s engineers, medical scientists, sociologists, and informational security analysts, all of whom help shape our global economy and healthcare system.

The United States Census Bureau reported in 2021 that women account for just 27% of employees in STEM-related careers, despite making up nearly half of the current workforce. Some of the most in-demand and lucrative careers of today and the future — computer science and engineering — remain male-dominated. At the college-level, students majoring in STEM-related fields are predominately young men.

Creating a new normal

We need to recognize that the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) promote a specific type of thinking that should be nourished by all our young people. STEM fosters problem-solving and creativity through a hands-on, real-world approach. The opportunity for our students to fully engage in activities using this methodology provides deeper learning experiences and the ability to explore and pursue interest in careers that they might not otherwise consider. 

By empowering our girls, from the elementary level all the way through high school, we can help decrease the gender gap that we still see today. Offer a robust STEM curriculum, programs, and guidance to all students, especially those who initially lacked the confidence to pursue such a field due to pre-conceived notions. By not embracing girls in STEM, we could lose out on future innovations and discoveries that may potentially change the world for the better, whether it is a medical marvel or a technological advancement. Simply look to the women in STEM today for such examples.

So, let’s push our girls in the classroom to create a computer program, conduct a science experiment, fly a drone, or play chess so we can get to a place where one day, the question of the importance of girls in STEM will seem dated.

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Our current system often restricts access and opportunity to girls and women in STEM. There is work to do. Now, more than ever before, we need K-12 mathematics teaching and learning to focus its energy on increasing opportunities and access for more students, for all students, and especially for all girls and women.

For too many and for far too long, our system has been structured to inhibit progress and not to open pathways. Engaging girls and women in mathematics based on sense-making, understanding, and application offers opportunities for them to see their strengths and abilities and use them to understand and make sense of their world — to reason and problem solve — all of which are foundational practices in STEM. Engaging and rigorous mathematics, with a focus on sense making, sharing one’s thinking, and critiquing the reasoning of others, provides a space for their voices to grow and strengthen and cultivates a belief in belonging in mathematics and in STEM fields. It strengthens their mathematics identity and supports them in seeing themselves in this space.

Role models and opportunities to engage with those in the STEM community, as well as experiencing success in mathematics themselves, are critical. A goal should be for students to leave K-12 and move to post-secondary study or careers seeing themselves as doers and users of math, competent and capable to lead in STEM fields. Through “Catalyzing Change,” the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) continues to provide leadership and guidance towards systemic changes at all levels, with one of the goals being providing all students access to mathematics and the opportunities it affords.

Empowering girls through mathematics

Mathematics that is relevant and purposeful is empowering for women and girls. Mathematics is an essential tool to make sense of our world. A world filled with data and quantifiable relationships and connections is the context to answer the age-old question, “why do we need to learn math?” 

Our collective goal is to support students’ ability to look at data, assess its validity, understand the various relationships and questions related to the context, and use mathematics to explore and make sense of what is going on.

These tenets also serve them well in STEM. Along with discipline-specific understanding and processes across the other STEM fields, students’ strong mathematics foundation provides the language and connecting concepts to excel in a STEM field as well as to connect across fields in integrative STEM. A coordinated set of STEM tools and lenses increase questioning and helps students make sense of STEM-related topics in their daily lives. They are equipped to use mathematical concepts to make connections both between and within STEM fields and connections to their world. When they do this, they make the transition from a receiver of mathematics to a user and doer of mathematics.

Empowering every student, especially those our system has been less supportive of, to see themselves as competent and capable of using and applying mathematics is a pathway into STEM fields. 

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In 2021, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enabled the rapid development of COVD-19 vaccines, made remote learning and telemedicine widely available, allowed new battery technologies for powering electric vehicles to be developed, provided for extremely accurate GPS, and much more.

Expansion of the digital economy will be driven by an increased prevalence of telework, by new products associated with the Internet of Things (IoT), and by the analysis and interpretation of large datasets. These demands will spur rapid employment growth for statisticians, information security analysts, and data scientists. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts that, over the next decade, computer and mathematical occupations will grow by around 33%, compared to 7.7% growth in the total number of occupations in the United States.

Promoting innovation

Women already hold nearly half of the STEM jobs in the United States, mostly as healthcare practitioners and technicians, yet only 26% of those employed in computer and mathematical sciences are women. Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous women are even more severely underrepresented. Now is the time to create a STEM culture in which all people can thrive, a culture in which we can all work together to innovate and to solve the world’s toughest challenges. Innovations are more likely and more robust when developed and tested by teams with diverse representation. Gender diversity is one factor shown to increase the collective intelligence of scientific working groups. Gender-diverse teams exhibit high levels of social perceptiveness and achieve greater equality in participation. 

To promote innovation, our classrooms and working teams must be welcoming and safe places for all perspectives, all genders, and all cultural experiences. We must acknowledge unconscious bias and resist stereotypes at every level, eliminate harassment and discrimination in all forms, and prioritize a work/life balance for ourselves and our colleagues. Beyond these essentials, we must create collaborative learning and working environments, actively build balanced and diverse teams and, crucially, promote women and traditionally underrepresented people to prominent positions. Representation matters. Role models matter. Community matters. 

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On paper, different organization leaders may list the same talents: strategic planning, risk management, and relationship building. However, each individual possesses a unique perspective shaped by their personal values and experiences. Therefore, the threats they perceive, the decisions they make on company priorities and opportunities, and the people and organizations they want to build relationships with may differ greatly.

Gendered biases

When comparing women leaders vs. men, societal stereotypes and biases have been ingrained in our subconscious. Men in leadership positions are often described as assertive and decisive while women are more likely to be labeled aggressive and bossy. Women are judged to be less competent than men or mothers are less dedicated than fathers.

A Yale study led by Dr. Corinne Moss-Racusin found that John was more likely to get hired and paid more than Jennifer when their resumes were identical except for the candidates’ names. This reflects the bias of those who were involved in the hiring process — even when women were making the hiring decision!

Yet, when women are given the opportunity to lead, their performance often outpaces men and helps to redefine these stereotypes. A recent study of corporate filings for companies in which a woman succeeded a man as CEO revealed a positive change in the language used to describe women (assertive/decisive vs. aggressive/bossy). In addition, this shift benefitted women at all levels throughout the organization.

Coming out on top

According to HBR, women score higher than men in most leadership skills. Specifically, Pew Research shared that women are seen as more ethical, empathetic, and able to work out compromises. Women tend to be more compassionate and are socialized at a young age to cooperate and collaborate. Women tend to set more realistic targets and achieve better employee engagement. During crises like the pandemic, women leaders demonstrated their ability to manage conflict and increase cohesion.

In male-dominated industries, women understand what it feels like to be marginalized. As a result of this, they are more likely to bring a more inclusive mindset to their leadership role as well as empower and inspire other women to ascend into leadership roles. Studies have proven time and again that diverse organizations outperform their less-diverse counterparts. For example, Board Ready reported that companies with over 30% of board seats held by women outperformed their less gender-diverse counterparts in 11 out of the top 15 S&P 500 sectors. Similarly, a McKinsey report found that taking action to promote gender equality could add $13 trillion to global GDP in 2030 compared to a gender-regressive scenario.

Yet, women still lag behind their male counterparts when it comes to leadership positions. According to the Fortune 500, women secured 26.5% of board seats in 2020 and women of color held 5.7%. It was much worse for privately held companies.

So, what percentage of leaders in your organization are women? Women leaders bring many skills to the table and a unique perspective that can benefit your organization. It is important to not let gender bias impede hiring and advancement decisions.

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Achieving gender equity is a complex challenge requiring collaboration from social, political, economic, and educational spheres. What can educators do to push towards a more equitable future for women? One possible solution lies in giving girls a robust STEM education.

A strong foundation in STEM provides girls with a unique skill set that builds their ability to be creative problem solvers. Girls gain access to a broader range of careers, learn to think critically, and are positioned to not only be smart consumers of technological advances but also to be the creators of those advancements. Education can play a significant role in helping to bridge gender equity gaps, but these benefits can only be achieved if we change the current STEM experience for girls at the K-12 school level.

Educators must intentionally work toward disrupting STEM gender norms in classrooms and schools. Routinely providing positive reinforcement, giving agency and voice, and introducing diverse female role models in STEM fields can help build girls’ confidence in STEM classrooms and give them opportunities to see themselves in these disciplines.

A voice for everyone in STEM education

Racial diversity is particularly important given that the numbers of women of color in STEM fields are disproportionately lower than the number of white women. In 2017, women accounted for only 29% of science and engineering professionals, despite making up over 50% of the college-educated workforce. The racial breakdown of women working in STEM careers reveals stark disparities: White and Asian women represent the majority within the female STEM workforce (62% and 20.7%, respectively). Yet, Black women make up 8.6%, Latinas 7.9%, and American Indian/Alaska Native women account for only 0.3%. When comparing these percentages to the racial breakdown of the general female population, it is evident that the gaps are wider for women who are Black, Latina, and American Indian/Alaska Native. Raising awareness of these statistics coupled with the disruption of gender norms in STEM classrooms can serve as a steppingstone toward changing this narrative and increasing representation in these fields.

In order to truly advance and tackle the complex global issues we currently face there must be a diverse set of voices and ideas present to push innovation forward. The benefits of increasing STEM education access to girls are therefore mutually beneficial for girls and for the STEM field. Girls are capable of not only contributing diverse perspectives to the field but also of bringing unique skills. Research shows that although there are no differences in math and science cognitive abilities between girls and boys, there is a significant difference in the capacity for empathy between genders — it’s higher for females. Building empathy is the first step of the design thinking process — one frequently used by engineers and scientists to solve complex problems. What girls contribute to the STEM field goes beyond diversification. They are capable of driving forward progress in STEM fields through their unique gifts.

A brighter future

We are being threatened with some of the most critical problems in history. From climate change to the unprecedented rise of a global pandemic, now is the time when the work of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, and others is imperative. Having a diverse set of voices, skills, and perspectives in those fields can assist in finding effective solutions to these problems.

The work of giving girls access to STEM education must endure, and although it’s challenging, the profits are immense. If we dare to dream big, we can build on the efforts of others in the movement toward a world where every girl is born with limitless opportunities to thrive, both as individuals and within their communities.

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Despite holding more than half of all undergraduate degrees, women are still vastly underrepresented among STEM degree holders, and only 14% are women of color. Females also remain proportionally under-represented in STEM careers, comprising 48% of the country’s total working population but just 27% of college-educated STEM workers. Disparities are even higher among women of color: minority women hold less than 10% of science and engineering jobs. Research points to enduring gender bias, internalized stereotype threat, and lack of female role models as persistent factors that discourage girls and women from pursuing STEM and STEM-related professions.

Studies show that gender differences in attitudes and interest in science are present by the end of the elementary grades. These early years therefore represent a crucial window not only for providing students with a solid foundation in STEM subjects, but also for cultivating an enthusiasm for STEM among girls. Yet, even with recent legislation that identifies STEM as integral to a well-rounded education, many students are still learning science by reading about it in a textbook or memorizing random facts rather than through fun, hands-on, engaging activities. Still others, particularly girls from underserved communities of color, continue to perceive science as inaccessible due to a lack of role models. The end result is that many potential female STEM students and professionals are weeded out before they begin.

A critical juncture for STEM empowerment

Girlstart intervenes at this critical juncture with opportunities for girls in grades 4-8 to explore a range of STEM disciplines and activities within a community of diverse role models and peers who can encourage their interest and persistence in the STEM pipeline. Grades 4-5 are a vital time to invest in equitable, accessible education, and in STEM in particular. Nonprofits can play a crucial role in this space. The 5th grade, for example, is the first administration of a standardized test in science (standardized tests in math are administered every year). Performance on these tests can have a profound impact on a child’s future with regard to taking advanced math and science courses in middle school, opening new doors and paths for college and career success.

As the opportunity gap continues to grow, out of school programs that equitably complement and expand school curriculums will be key to encouraging girls’ early engagement and academic success in STEM, as well as their future aspirations and persistence in STEM higher education and careers. We need more girl-centered programming incorporating research-backed methods to engage and empower all girls in STEM — with real-world connections to STEM careers and diverse role models to inspire girls.

Girlstart After School, Camp, and Community STEM programs in Texas, California, and Massachusetts build the fundamental skills and knowledge in STEM — as well as the confidence and interest in STEM — that girls need to pursue STEM courses, activities, majors, and careers. We also continually review and refresh the curriculum to remain responsive to the ever-changing learning standards against which girls are benchmarked and tested. By empowering more elementary-aged girls to continue STEM studies, we can address gender and racial inequities in STEM education and incubate a talented and more diverse STEM workforce.

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