Cultivating female talent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is critical to America’s global leadership and ability to “out-build, out-educate and out-innovate future competitors.”  Perpetuating gender stereotypes in STEM is a problem and hinders girls from believing that careers in these fields are within their reach. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25% of STEM jobs.  They currently earn 41% of PhD’s in STEM fields, but make up only 28% of tenure-track faculty in those fields.  Women hold a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees, particularly in engineering.  The white house has stated that the President recognizes the need for more women champions and role models in STEM fields. 

 

Personal experience and obstacles she faced as not only a STEM student, but also as a STEM professional such as limited STEM exposure, a lack of female role models in STEM professions and non-family friendly practices led our founder to create a not-for-profit organization called Fems4STEM which addresses these issues by:

 

• Encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers and inspiring them to be the next generation of innovators by boosting their self-esteem and confidence

 

• Increasing the number of women in STEM professions by establishing a large network of female mentors to show girls that they can excel in STEM professions thus eradicating gender stereotyping and negative perceptions

 

• Empowering girls through hands-on activities and early exposure equipping them with the necessary tools to be competitive in all stages of their STEM careers.