NEWS
campusreview.com.au
Women
on STEM
for girls
Experts discuss how to attract
more female students into
fields and keep them there.
By James Wells
T
he gender imbalance in STEM fields is well documented.
The goal of more women in, for example, physics,
engineering and computer science-related professions is
being promoted by universities, industry and politicians.
But while STEM gender equity and increased female
representation is being talked about – a lot – there’s not all that
much discussion on how to get there. At Intel’s Girls in Tech:
Inspiring the Next Generation of Creative, Entrepreneurial and
Digital Women event, held recently in Sydney, several experts got
together and discussed just that.
EXPERTS’ TOP TIPS:
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“If you’re trying to attract more women, young students, female
students, into makerspaces, for God’s sake, don’t paint [the
makerspace] pink and put Hello Kitty pictures on the wall.” That’s
Kate Burleigh, managing director of Intel Australia. Instead, STEM
programs targeted at girls should advertise the diversity of careers
available in tech industries. “If your passion is medicine, technology
has a role in medicine. If your passion is teaching – we know that
technology has a role to play in teaching as well. Pick your industry,
it doesn’t necessarily mean if you study technology, you’re going to
end up in a technology industry.”
When you’re running STEM programs for young girls, and all
students for that matter, don’t direct their learning, guide it,
said Dr Karsten Schulz, national program director of IT education
advocacy group Digital Careers Australia. “When I was at school,
I came home from school and I had my little table, my little
electronics engineering lab that I built up myself,” Schulz said.
“I was just tinkering and I had fun. I firmly believe kids learn best
when they are not directed, when they can decide their own
direction. Don’t tell them, ‘No, you can’t’. Only say, ‘What can you
do with that?’ ”
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Sarah Moran disagreed with Burleigh, saying aesthetics play
a big part. Moran is co-founder and marketing director of Girl
Geek Academy. She’s part of an all-female expert team dedicated
to getting more women into STEM. She said an integral part of
enticing prospective students is “thinking about what we were
like as young girls”. Moran said: “We actually have a Hello Kitty 3D
printer, and it goes off like a frog in a sock. We do look at branding
and aesthetic, and the message that we’re giving young girls does
add femininity. It provides a new outlook on the way we can use
these digital tools.”
Cathie Howe, manager of Macquarie University’s Macquarie
ICT Innovations Centre (MacICT), which provides STEM
professional development and workshops, said education needs
to start early. Research commissioned by Intel shows the boy-togirl ratio in STEM-related extracurricular activities remains relatively
even until Year 9, when girls start dropping out in droves. Howie
said effective early teaching could help fix this. “If we start early
enough with our primary school students … if we can really focus
on those areas and design learning experiences within those
subjects, then perhaps we may see a turnaround in the numbers,”
Howe said.
Sunny South, teacher librarian at Sydney Secondary College
Leichhardt Campus and the secretary of the School Library
Association of New South Wales, explained that inspiring early
STEM interest in girls involves not letting the boys take over the
class. “I came to the school running what we called a tech ninja
program,” South said. “I called my first meeting. It was 99 per cent
boys, a couple of girls, and they just totally took over the agenda.
The girls felt intimidated. They didn’t come back.” ■
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See “What STEM needs now”, page 14.
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