California Bill SRC-20 designates this week as Women and Girls in STEM week. Here’s what that’s all about:
About SRC-20:
This measure designates April 4, 2021, to April 10, 2021, inclusive, as Women and Girls in STEM Week and encourages all citizens and community organizations to support the observance of California’s Women and Girls in STEM Week by encouraging and celebrating women in the STEM fields. This bill states some startling information that we’re working to help solve:
- According to the United States Census Bureau, while women make up nearly one-half of the working population, they only represent 26 percent of the STEM workforce.
- Women represented 34 percent of computer occupations in 1990, but that number declined to 27 percent by 2011
- Women earn nearly 60 percent of bachelor’s degrees, but are underrepresented in STEM-related college degrees, especially in the computer sciences and engineering fields
However the bill also goes on to say that “Women in STEM professions earn one-third more than women in non-STEM-related occupations.” So it’s key that we continue to prepare girls through science learning.
How we can help prepare girls for careers in STEM:
One of our favorite way to get girls into science is to pair them with female scientist mentors and other young ladies who are interested in similar careers! In our Girls Summer Research Experience, they get to try research in a hands-on way.
Our participants learn that:
- Scientists can come from any background and look like anybody
- Scientists can create research around just about any topic they find interesting.
- Science is more than just studying facts and numbers. It’s taking a look at the real world, working outdoors, and even collaborating with other scientists.
The young women in our programs emerge with a completed research presentation and a published research paper to get them started at applying to college, looking for an internship, applying to a high school AP class, or even just thinkign more about the world in a scientific way.
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