Getting more women involved in STEM is crucial to the success of those fields. However, many women feel discouraged by the lack of women they see in STEM careers and feel that it isn’t an option for them. Colleges can help reverse this opinion and inspire more women to pursue STEM majors by doing these four things.
Hold outreach events
One of the best ways to get women in the STEM field is to encourage them from an early age. While it doesn’t make any sense for a college to start recruiting kindergarteners into STEM, they can hold outreach events targeted towards middle and high schoolers. Ohio State has a Women in Engineering program that helps to introduce STEM to young girls by holding events and one-day camps.
Promote women in STEM in marketing materials
It may sound simple, but including pictures and testimonials of women in STEM fields in college marketing materials can help to encourage more women to choose a major in that field. One of the biggest reasons why women leave the STEM field is because there are no other women in their classes. By showing interested girls that your program includes women will encourage them to choose it.
To read the rest of the article, written by Aditi Patil, click here.