A Man's World?

For years, men have dominated the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. If I looked around my Maths C class, I see just three girls compared to a whopping 21 boys. But why is this? Is it because they aren't as intellectually capable? Lack of interest? Or a lack of enthusiasm? Shouldn't we be encouraging more diversity in such important fields of study? By encouraging more females into these fields, they could be apart of a new discovery that could change the world.

So, are women actually mentally inferior? The truth is no. Actually, females are smarter. Those three in the Maths C class are actually at the top, beating their male counterparts. Beating them by a lot and receiving higher marks and working harder. Yet, there are still only three of them.

What about a lack of interest? Sure, some girls may hate the idea of doing hard subjects that challenge them. But there are some boys that would have the exact same mentality. But somehow there are still seven times as many boys sitting in front of me than girls. The lack of interest doesn’t come from the complexity of STEM. It comes from something that we as a society have created to ensure that females stay at home "where they belong."

The real reason: social stigma. The idea that women aren’t capable of completing mentally difficult problems.

Rubbish.

Complete rubbish. This is illustrated by the fact that three females are beating 21 other males to top their class.

So why does this social stigma exist? It comes from the stereotypical belief that the women should be at home caring for the kids, cleaning the house while the men are out making money. But really, we should be having thousands of intellectually gifted women enter the world of STEM instead of wasting their time doing something they don't want to, just because they are female. If we had more women in STEM, there would be a new perspective on our world’s problems and different situations. A new way of looking at climate change, a cure for deadly diseases or new and innovative ways of designing a better tomorrow. But instead, women are being excluded because they aren’t being inspired to enter into the world of STEM for the belief that it’s a "man’s world."

Already, women have made significant contributions to the world of STEM. Just a few examples: Rosalind Franklin, a molecular biologist significantly contributed to the discovery of DNA; the fast advances of STEM cell research as a ground-breaking treatment that could help cure cancer, spinal chord injuries and other major diseases is due to the amazing work of female scientist Gail Martin. Clearly, women can have such a significant impact to the world of STEM and hence, women should be encouraged to join the STEM world.

By encouraging a female to join STEM, the opportunities and results that could come out of it are endless. They may be responsible for the next big break in STEM. By eradicating the social stigma that surrounds the STEM subjects, more females won’t be daunted by the idea of taking challenging subjects. We can have intellectually gifted females solving the world’s problems. This new perspective on challenging problems could lead to the solution that we as a society have been searching for for decades. Having more women invested in education, we would be encouraging independent women who can think and provide for themselves. So why should STEM be a man’s world when really, it should be equally both? Let’s see the 3 to 21 ratio turn into a 12 to 12 ratio of intellectually gifted men and women working together in the field of STEM.