Maria is a successful businesswoman from Mexico who had always wanted to gain education and pursue a career in any of the science related fields, but never had the opportunity because her late father believed that a woman’s role is limited to the home.

However, Maria vowed to ensure that her daughters must live up to this dream.

But one day, she asked her 9-year-old daughter what she wanted to become when she grows up, and she quickly answered that she wants to be a writer or a teacher. She then asked her 7-year-old son the same question, and he proudly said that he wants to be a scientist or an engineer. These answers made a whole lot of sense considering that her daughter loves reading books and taking care of her American Girl doll while her son enjoys looking up science experiments and making Coke bottles explode with Mentos. But they never went down well with Maria.

You might want to pause and think, “what’s so wrong with this story?” After all, we need teachers and writers as much as we need scientists and engineers. Besides, what a kid wants to be when he or she is in elementary school isn’t necessarily indicative of their future career choices… right?

Fast-forward eight years. My junior year of high school, I took both IB Biology and IB Physics. The number of girls in my IB Biology class was about the same as the number of boys in the class. On the other hand, the number of girls in my IB Physics class was significantly smaller than the number of boys in the class. Similarly, in the Intel Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s top science and engineering competition for high school students, women made up 54 percent of the finalists in the biochemistry category but only 17 percent of the finalists in the computer science category.

Fast-forward eight more years. In 2010, women received on average about 14 percent of computer science undergraduate degrees at major research universities, and that number has not changed much since then. The trend that started in the elementary school that encourages girls to go into the humanities and boys to go into engineering and mathematics has prevailed throughout high school, college, and well into the workplace. The stereotypes we ingrain into our children at as early an age as four or five don’t just magically disappear when they get older. Instead, those stereotypes strengthen as children grow older and continue to explore the society that continually reinforces these stereotypes.

Why is it so important that we encourage more women to go into the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)? Many of my friends, classmates, and even adult teachers and neighbors (both male and female) whom I have spoken to about this issue don’t seem to understand what the big deal is. So what if women hold less than 20% of computer science or engineering degrees? So what if fewer and fewer female students are enrolling in physics and technology classes as the years go by? We’ve come a long way since the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they tell me. Maybe it’s time to give it a rest.

Here’s why it’s so important to encourage more women to go into STEM fields. In a country in which the average women still earn 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns, and in a country in which the majority of single parents are single mothers, getting more women into STEM could both reduce the gender wage gap and ensure that single mothers don’t have to struggle to put food on the table. Not only are there currently more jobs in the STEM field than in any other industry, but most of these high-tech jobs are high-paying, as well. According to the National Council for Women and Information Technology, there will be around 1.4 million computer specialist job openings expected in the U.S. by 2020. Women have the capability to hold 50 percent of those jobs. Yet, in order to get to the point where women earn fifty percent of STEM degrees and hold fifty percent of STEM jobs, we need to start at the very beginning.

By the very beginning, I mean pre-K, when kids are just beginning to learn basic math and science skills and most likely have not yet been exposed to the stereotypes regarding men and women in STEM. By the time women reach college or even high school, it may be too late to change their minds about going into STEM. After all, choosing a major or a career is a lifelong process of determining what we enjoy doing. And much of what we enjoy doing is determined early on by outside forces such as parents, teachers, and society’s general expectations.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, recently mentioned that of the 35 kids in a Stanford technology camp for young children, only five were girls. Of those five girls, Sandberg herself had enrolled two of them (her niece and her niece’s friend). What does this say about the parents of the girls who could have been in that camp? If a girl’s parents don’t believe in their daughter’s ability to succeed in engineering and technology, how can we expect that girl to grow up and believe in it herself? In order to get more women into STEM, we need to start by eliminating our subconscious attempts to gear our young boys towards STEM and keep our young girls in the dark.

Now, what about those of us who don’t have children yet? Can we do anything to help the gender gap in STEM? Yes, yes we can. According to Jocelyn Goldfein, the director of engineering at Facebook, the reason there aren’t more women computer scientists is “because there aren’t more women computer scientists.” If girls see that most of their female mentors and older female friends aren’t going into STEM, they are less likely to go into those fields themselves. Part of the reason behind this phenomenon is the stereotype threat, which states that if we are aware of a stereotype, we are more likely to act in accordance with it. In order to help our young girls to not be afraid of STEM fields such as engineering and computer science, older girls and young women need to show that we are not afraid of these fields ourselves.

Individually, we can’t change the fact girls make up a very small percentage of the programmers, engineers, and scientists shown on television and in movies, nor can we change the way the media portrays girl “geeks.” What we can do, however, is to make a difference in the lives of the young girls we know personally. And one day, the young girls we help will grow up to cure diseases, write computer programs, discover the next technological advances, and ultimately change the world.

Written by Celia Islam
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Title: Closing the STEM Gender Gap: Why Is It Important and What Can You Do to Help?

“I think you should focus on your role as a wife and mother.”

Those were the words Beatrice received from a bank manager while bidding for a loan to start up a business. She had walked home unhappy under the scorching sun, again – she had been turned down by the bank who refused to give her a loan to start up her business.

Each time Beatrice visits the bank, it turned out to be a bad day for her, they give her one hundred and one reasons why they think her business will never succeed. On this particular day she asked to see the bank manager who had conversed with her, and bluntly told her “we usually do not invest in women-owned businesses because we don’t think that they could sustain the pressure of growing a business, I think you should focus on your role as a wife and mother”.

She was stunned at his response and repeatedly asked herself how those self-made female business tycoons made it to the top?

“Did they actually pass through this process?” “Or is it just me?” Beatrice wondered.

Poor Beatrice; many female entrepreneurs around the world have shared similar experiences. They claim that they had no shortage of innovation or business ideas but the major barrier is undercapitalization and gender bias. Testimonies of many female entrepreneurs, about how they started their businesses, and the difficulties they faced, have reflected a similar pattern, they lack access to funding and support from the government, banks, and the incubator communities.

Women have claimed that being a woman entrepreneur comes with different hurdles than those of their male counterparts.

Shelley True of TrueDotDesign also gave her account of how she was turned down several times by money lenders and banks.  “I had to go to a number of lenders and banks and was turned down several times, for no real reason.” Even when she exceeded the revenue numbers the banks demanded approval, “they still turned me down” – she said.

Gender barrier is a normal challenge faced by women entrepreneurs while trying to start or grow their businesses, which has also resulted in the loss of confidence among many women in the business world. Each time this happens many women tend to give up on their business ideas, projects and dreams, just because they couldn’t find capital.

The journey to the top for many women in business are filled with potholes and when once that can be avoided, the woman entrepreneur would be able to achieve success.

Meanwhile, a particular school of thought is raising the notion against the amount of effort exerted on the push for gender equality, saying that the movement has gone too far. Hearing this for the first time, you might want to pause and take a closer look at the meaning of that assertion, but how convincing can that be? When there are still women all over the world complaining about the struggles they go through in the business world based on their gender.

People often argue that most Western societies have achieved gender equality and women have all the same legal rights as men, but on the other hand, feminists continue to argue that the battle for gender equality is not yet won.

The curiosity about this matter is why have the banks, investors and governments failed to believe in the women. Different people are of different opinions as to why these things happen, but one of the common opinions is Gender Discrimination.

Even while the government claimed to have created various programs that are aimed at helping women entrepreneurs, many women still find the government programs to be inherently biased.

Speaking about the Government bias programmes, Jennifer Schoenhofer, the CEO and president of Axis Teknologies, a wireless infrastructure engineering firm in Marietta, Ga said “the federal government’s program to award 5 percent of contracts to women-owned businesses annually is meagre compared with the roughly 15 percent that minority business owners can get, – That in itself is inequality to me,” she stressed.

Despite the programs, training, grants, and support that female entrepreneurs have at their disposals, this debate still heats like a thunderbolt whenever it is raised. This issue appeals to every woman in the business world irrespective of the country or region they are from.

It is a general problem, considering the various annual listings of world billionaires, there is a clear observation about that these listings are male dominated.

Should the women give up and let things happen the way they will?

If anyone is of that opinion, it is as good as a bad idea because women play a huge role in the current world’s economy, it is therefore unhealthy to understate the importance of female entrepreneurs in any economy of the world.

Women are highly ambitious and often start their career at a young age. They cover many spheres of life from the media to fashion, sales, banking and many more. Presently there is no sector that is void of a woman.

However, there are still women whose journey has been a tough one and have not been able to achieve their aim without headaches and bumps in the road. Within them is a groaning pain to grow their businesses and succeed in life.

The gap between men and women rights to many of life advantages is still wide including the business sphere. Women entrepreneur are still faced with trials and tribulations of fundraising and gender bias, which means that there should be more room for the continuity of the gender equality pursuit.

Miracle Nwankwo

Author: Meghan Werft

Gender Bias. Child care. “Old Boys Clubs.” These are just some of the patriarchal roadblocks women face to entering the male-dominated field of politics. There are over 500,000 elected government positions in the US. For those to be equally represented between genders, experts estimate it could take anywhere between 100-500 years. 

Women hold 19.6% of elected seats in the US Congress, and 20% in the Senate according to a study from Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics. This number increases to 24% for state legislator positions but is still nowhere near gender parity.

Meanwhile, women are six times more likely than men to report being responsible for managing household chores, and a whopping 15 times more likely to report bearing the brunt of managing care for children, according to a study from Pew Research Center.

The City of New York University found that men were 15% more likely to be encouraged by their peers to run for government than women.

Beyond those entrenched stereotypes about gender roles, though, there are a number of complex and nuanced issues that act as barriers to gender parity in the political sphere.

Here is a deeper look at the barriers women in politics are up against today.

‘Who Me? Yes, You! If Not Then Who?’

The first barrier is simple and surprising: many women don’t even see politics as a career option. “There’s this disconnect in our thinking of what that job looks like…It’s a job like any other and I think we still haven’t cracked open the fact that this is a job for women,” Elyse Shaw, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, told Global Citizen.

Shaw assisted on a study from IWPR called “Building Women’s Political Careers: Strengthening the Pipeline to Higher Office,”  where women were interviewed about their decisions to run for office. “I think more women are getting involved in politics. But one of the major findings, at least for me, out of this study was that a lot of women don’t see politics as a career,” Shaw said.

Shaw added that women often see politics as a hobby or side-job, and one that often needs a second income to support it. In addition to not seeing politics as a career, girls and women are seldom encouraged to run for office, according to Clare Bresnahan, Executive Director of She Should Run, an organization encouraging women to run for local and federal office positions.

“Even at earlier ages, in their college years, women have reported not being encouraged to run for office. Much like in the STEM fields,” Bresnahan told Global Citizen. “Women and girls don’t see themselves as reflected. When women run for office they win at the same rates. But they aren’t encouraged to run.”

In a recent study from American University, 22% of women surveyed said they felt qualified to run for office compared to 35% of men who were surveyed, Vox reports.

“It took 10 years volunteering to have the actual self-confidence to say, ‘I can run for office,’” New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand told the New York Times. “Women are the biggest self-doubters.”

Male Incumbency

When women make it past the confidence barrier, there is still the challenge of defeating men who have held elected positions for decades. “Politics is one of those areas where the ‘old boys club’ still rules, so it’s hard [for women] to tap into it. You have the incumbency issues. It’s really hard when you have the same white men who’ve been around for a while,” Shaw said. “It’s hard for women, Democratic or Republican.”

And it doesn’t help that male members of Congress are twice as likely to run unopposed as female members. “Congress has historically been all male, and members of Congress get reelected at rates above 90 percent. That means you’re basically waiting for people to retire,” Michele Swers, a political scientist at Georgetown University told Vox.

“Politics is an ‘old boys’ club. That’s the bottom line,” said Brenda Carter, campaign director of the Reflective Democracy Campaign, a group working to get women, especially women of color, into politics. “Women and people of color have been excluded from political power in a number of ways.”

Even at earlier ages, in their college years, women have reported not being encouraged to run for office. Much like in the STEM fields.

So what can help?

Quotas, affirmative measures that set fixed numbers or percentages for representation often of a minority group in politics, are one method to consider in order to help accelerate the slow growth rate of women entering politics due to male incumbency. Countries like Sweden have installed gender quotas. Next year in Sweden, 40% of candidates on ballots will be women, required by law. Bolivia installed gender parity quota in 2009 and now 53% of elected government officials are women.

While experts like Elyse Shaw believe this is less likely to happen in the US, she points instead to cities and states who employ a method called “rank choice voting,” where constituents can rank political candidates in order of preference. 

Rank choice voting can help get more women, especially women of color, on voter’s radars and give women a better chance at winning, according to Representation 2020, a group working for gender parity in politics. The group studied rank choice voting in San Francisco and found more women and candidate of color won.

Rank choice voting can lessen the impact of split votes, where third-party votes are essentially lost because multiple candidates from the same community can still be counted according to Representation 2020’s report. For women, this can be huge.

They say in the report that by including women in a ballot that uses rank choice, a woman may not be a voters’ first choice but more people are likely to include women as second or third choices, which can result in more women and candidates of color winning according to their report.

It will take structural changes in recruitment,  and electoral and legislative rules, like expanding inclusive measure such as rank choice voting, to reach equal gender representation in the US according to Representation 2020.

Family Protection and Gender Bias

“Women are held to harsher standards for things like appearance and family,” Bresnahan said. “It doesn’t hamper their ambition, but it is more of a factor in their decision to run.”

Shaw said that women are more likely to consider the effect their running for office has on their children.

“There were a lot of women in the study who said they didn’t want to run because they didn’t want their kids to be in the limelight,” Shaw said. 

In addition, social media has brought a new wave of gender – bias to politics for women according to Name It Changes It, a project from She Should Run and the Women’s Media Center, working to end gender – bias in politics. 

Politics is an ‘old boys’ club.’ That’s the bottom line.

More people reported seeing gender – bias in social media (27%) than other outlets such as televised news (16%) and broadcast (12%), Name It Change It reports.

Because women tend to consider the impact on their families and children more than male candidates, they often choose to run either earlier or later in life or have children after they are in office, according to Shaw.

Tapping Into Networks

Women also face challenges in fundraising, but not exactly in the way you might think. It’s not just about raising money, but instead in tapping into lasting networks of financial political support.

“Teaching women to ask when it comes to fundraising isn’t the hard part. The hard part is tapping into established networks of funders or new networks of funding,” Shaw said. “It’s a sponsorship issue.”

According to a report by Political Parity more women gain support from individual donors rather than established networks, like organizations and businesses, that donate to political candidates. The result of this is that donations are not as long-lasting and women have to work harder to raise the same amounts in the future, according to the report.

So getting established politicians to support women new to running for office is essential to getting more women into the field. Fortunately, there are groups and support networks that can help.

Set nonpartisan organizations to help women tap into funding networks, like the Women’s Campaign Fund, can provide a support network for the brave women who are both paving the path and considering running for office today.

“Women’s committees can be a big asset and helpful for supporting each other in an office. They can be good for bipartisan cooperation,” Shaw said.

Today, motivators like She Should Run, Emily’s List, Latina’s Represent, Name It Change It, the Barbara Lee Foundation, Representation 2020, and She Should Run’s Incubator program and campaign, Ask a Woman to Run, are just some of tools available for women toying with the idea of a political career.

“There are so many [more] organizations, resources, for women entering politics than in the past,” Bresnahan said.

The Silver Lining to Barriers

The good news is that most of these barriers can be broken with societal shifts and changes in the way we perceive both gender norms and politics.

Treating a government position like the actual career it is could encourage girls and women to consider politics as a career earlier in life, says Elyse Shaw. Challenging gender norms that women are responsible for childcare and family rearing, along with making child care more accessible, could also help. This, however, is more complicated than it seems.

“It’s hard because those are societal shifts that can be hard to address. But it’s also a catch-22 because having more women in office would help address those things [like child care.] It could normalize it,” Shaw said.