My Position

Ultimately, we need to begin integrating more women into the STEM fields. However, the question still remains, how? There are multiple ways to encourage women to become successful business workers, and owners in the STEM field, and the demand is significant.

The Statistics of women in STEM

As I have done my research about the “nature vs. nurture” debate, I strongly agree with the “nurture” point of view. I agree with this side of the debate because of the solid facts determined by nature. When we look at a man, comparatively next to a woman, there is absolutely no differential factors that would hinder one from working in the STEM fields. This is supported by the fact that women begin to give up on the STEM field when they first experience discrimination in education. Women are getting the same degree’s as men, and creating nearly identical applications, but somehow women still aren’t getting hired nearly as much as men. The U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administrations states, “Of scientists and engineers seeking employment 50% under 75 are women, and 49% under 29 are women. About one in seven engineers are female.” (Beede, 3). This shows that women and men apply the exact same amount of times to work in a STEM career (50%) but only get hired one time out of every seven applications. Because of this, we know that it is not because of disinterest that women are not getting hired, but solely discrimination by employers.

Men are just as capable as women, just as women are to men. When we look at the statistics of STEM, we see that man and women are generally equally. The Western Governors University states, “In psychology, biological sciences, and social sciences, women make up 54 percent of the bachelor’s degrees and 57 percent of the doctorate degrees, which is fantastic, But women only make up 48 percent of doctorate degrees.” (5) When we look at the statistics, we see that the educational capabilities of women slightly outweigh those of men in most cases. Women make up more than half or the scientific degrees, which supports the side of nurture. This side argues that women are no different than men and have the perfect capability to achieve a STEM career, if given the equal opportunity. By equalizing men and women’s abilities, choices, and opportunities, there will be an ultimate equality of outcome, being the growing estrogen of STEM.

How to get more estrogen in STEM

Women can contribute a great deal of assistance to the field of STEM. To optimize success in STEM, we have to make the environment open and inviting to both men and women of all sorts. We should allow this open invitation to occur through a nondiscriminatory interviewing and hiring process. If you have the degree, and qualifications, you should get the job. We could eliminate stereotypical hiring by simply showing the employer a resume with no indication of gender. Instead of a name, it would be an ID number so that the employer does not know if a particular employee is male or female until they have received the job. To do this, we first need to recognize and make former and current women scientist in the STEM career. After doing this, we can start to engage young women in the concepts and practices of STEM, and Finally, we need to confront preexisting sexism in STEM. All of these plans of action start with ceasing the discrimination where it is first received, which is in the education system. We could attempt this change by requiring all professors and educators to practice equal opportunity in the classroom, and make sure frequent evaluations of educators are set in place to make for a safe, and open environment in the classroom.