The Tides Less Sailed: Women in STEM | By Jane Law
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| Illustration by Azmina with Vincent and Jessica Peggy Riekert. |
“But you don’t look like one.”
A preposterous sentence that has left many bright, sedulous women and girls on the receiving end befuddled. Every time the statement is relayed, a door of opportunity closes on the women who knock on them.
Globally, female researchers constitute a mere 30%. It doesn’t help that only a fraction of female students select STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)-related fields in higher education. UNESCO reports that only a devastating 3% of women across the globe are involved in the Information and Communication technology (ICT) field, 5% for Mathematics and Statistics courses, and a 8% for Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction studies.
While women in some parts of the world are more drawn than others to STEM programs, the global situation remains marked by gender imbalances. When women do follow a career in science, their paths are brimmed with entrenched gender stereotypes and gender biases that prevent them from advancing in their careers. Not only that, women are found to earn less as compared to their male colleagues.
In 2015, more than half of Malaysia’s STEM-related fields in tertiary education were composed of women, which is a tremendous amount. As of now, enrolment rates have skyrocketed throughout the years with many more girls being able to attend schools. In addition, it has been observed that Malaysian girls are excelling in STEM, in both academics and extracurricular, which begs the question— why do women and girls still have little to no place in the Malaysian STEM sector?
“I would say it’s because of the social bias whereby females are not good and competent enough unless they have achieved considerable success. This directly affects women’s motivation to go further with the potential they have due to the lack of support,” said Celine Loo, a Taylorian from the School of Biomedical Sciences. Celine, who has personally heard her primary school teachers making remarks that boys are better than girls, shared that she had a passion for Mathematics. However, she grew up under the influence that Engineering was a career designed for boys, which led her to believe that it was too hard for her to excel in this field because according to her teachers, it is something that boys are better at.
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| Source: Imperial College London |
Nicole Chan from Chemical Engineering remembers the first day of her degree when she met her classmates, who remarked that she looked like “the type that doesn’t do work and gets bad grades” simply because she dresses up and didn’t bear the resemblance of a typical ‘engineering student’. Upon that, she received discouragement from various people when she shared her plans to study science degrees. Nevertheless, comments such as ‘you would never be able to find a career here’ or ‘that is a guy’s course, there are no girls taking that’ didn’t stop her from chasing after what she wanted.
Now a third year student, Nicole noted, “While engineering is definitely a male-dominated field, in recent years there have been more women entering. One of the reasons why engineering is found to be male-dominated is because of the decades-old stereotype of what engineers should be. Besides, better opportunities are also given to men as compared to women.”
The Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) Fellow Prof Datuk Dr Halimaton Hamdan has stated in The Star that gender stereotyping has caused women to feel less desirable than their male counterparts. In return, they doubt themselves, which refrains them from opting STEM as a viable career choice.
“Many still hold onto the perspective that women are less intelligent than men or less suited to be participating in STEM as a domestic setting is more appropriate for them. A large percentage of men still believe that women should settle down to start a family and eventually quit their careers, which causes women to have fewer opportunities,” voiced Heng Lim, who has also faced her share of discrimination for following an education in Biotechnology. “I believe that being ‘better’ at something is not based on gender or sex but simply the passion, effort and time put into that particular something,” she continued. “STEM is not exclusive to boys or men, and should include everyone as it’s an essential tool that can solve a multitude of issues.”
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| Source: Girledworld |
In addition, the lack of female role models has been cited from time to time as one of the prime causes for why there is a lack of female representation in STEM. Second year Psychology student Yumitra Kannan noticed that in the list of remarkable psychologists like Freud or Darwin, women’s names are hardly included.
“The famous psychologists you always hear of in Psychology 101 or general theories are all men. I have not seen a single female psychologist’s name come up in Psychology 101 and it is quite upsetting, because there are many women out there who are doing great work in the field,” Yumitra commented. “Even early female psychologists did significant work but never made it to the top. In fact, Anna Freud’s work is more applicable than Sigmund Freud’s,” she added.
When asked why it was important for her to see more women representation in STEM, Yumitra shared, “Young girls need role models, real-life inspiration and the faith of belonging in the STEM field just as much as the boys, and young boys need to learn that genius is not gender specific.”
On the other hand, Heng Lim believes that female representation and all representation is essential as STEM can be developed and utilized to solve many of the issues that have impacted communities diversely.
“Inclusivity allows us to create solutions that tackle a problem from all perspectives to ensure that every community benefits,” she said. “For so long, solutions have been devised to solve problems from only one perspective and more often than not cause negative impacts on other communities. We need to understand and acknowledge that solutions are not one-size-fits-all but should reflect the complexity of interdependent and codependent communities.”
So, how do we encourage more girls to take up STEM? Celine thinks that highlighting women and their accomplishments in the field is key to creating awareness. This would encourage more people to stand up against sexism in the industry. Nicole shares the opinion that eliminating discouraging stereotypes surrounding STEM is one of the first steps to empower women to participate. Other ways include exposing children to STEM at a young age and supporting them should they decide to continue a career in the field.
“Find ways to make STEM education more accessible to children of all genders, all around the world,” answered Yumitra. “Fight against the system that ever so easily squashes their dreams by snatching away opportunities. And also, to maybe see it as ‘never too late to join the field of STEM’ for all the women who tried but failed and would still try if given a chance.”
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| Source: My Little Local |
From the inspiring Marie Curie who discovered radium and polonium all the way to the pride of Malaysia, Dr. Amalina, who was involved in Imperial College London’s team in developing a COVID-19 vaccine, women and girls have steered the boat in science with their courageous contributions for many years. Unfortunately, their hard work is easily overlooked when people pronounce that women aren’t as capable or sharp-witted as their male peers.
Hence, the United Nations General Assembly has declared today, the 11th of February as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This is an effort to encourage and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in science. This day marks the importance of having equal representation in the STEM workforce. It is a day to remember the glaring, groundbreaking achievements that women have made for the world. It is a day to call upon topdog companies around the world to adopt Women’s Empowerment Principles and most importantly, to harness the talents of women and girls in science and technology because just like men, they can be the driving force of innovation to power our future.
It is time to acknowledge the invisible women in STEM that have been around since the dawn of mankind and honor their massive works to the world.
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