Girls in STEM: How women empowerment campaigns are helping young girls achieve their dreams

STEM (known as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), is a broad area of discipline where men take up the majority of the workforce. Male-dominated disciplines, especially STEM, show large gender inequalities in the workplace and upholds barriers for women entering these areas. According to Vivienne Reiner at the University of Sydney, micro-aggressions, stereotyping, and many more barriers are holding women back from thriving in their academic positions.

Evidence shows that women in STEM are still underrepresented. Women currently make up 17% of the engineering workforce in the US, and 68% are white women. There are underrepresented women from minority backgrounds and race that sustains drastic gender gaps in male-dominated areas.

However, there has also been a surge of women empowerment campaigns that are determined to minimize these gender gaps. A major part of solving these gaps is to promote high-achieving women and support young girls to penetrate the barriers in the workforce. These campaigns advocate in celebrating and promoting women in achievements while also raising awareness of the gender bias and gender gaps in STEM.

Next Tech Girls Photo by Steven Siewert

One of them is Next Tech Girls, an initiative started by Empiric, a recruitment agency that specializes in technology. They aim to sustainably increase the number of women in technology, and obtain more experiences for girls and women. Next Tech Girls holds events, training and placements to provide more girls with opportunities in STEM. Since it is initiated by a recruitment agency, this campaign is accomplishing a more direct solution to increase women in the workforce.

Women In Cloud is another initiative advocating for support for women entrepreneurs. Founded, by Microsoft, this cooperative was established to empower women-led businesses and generate more resources for them. The initiative believes that by empowering these women-led businesses and projects in technology, they are able to see more growth in cloud services and solutions.

Photo by The Prevail Project

An international non-profit organization dedicated provide jobs and opportunities for women in technology is Women Who Code. They aim to empower women to achieve the skills they need to excel in their future careers. They also work with companies to retain more and hire more skilled women in the workforce.

"We envision a world where women are proportionally represented as technical leaders, executives, founders, VCs, board members, and software engineers."- Women Who Code

IGNITE Worlwide, works directly with teachers and schools to promote careers in STEM for girls and non-binary students. They often hold workshops and projects led by STEM professionals to support girls with more opportunities and experiences. Gender equity and balancing the gender gap is also a big mission of IGNITE Worldwide as they allow girls to efficiently learn more about STEM career options.

These campaigns exemplify how women empowerment is a crucial step in reducing the gender gap and allowing women to excel at their own potential. They boost morale and give more opportunities for young girls which ultimately generates a more productive development in STEM.