Supporting Girls In STEM
\”We have to show girls that they will be loved and accepted, not for being perfect, but for being courageous.\”
Those are the words of Reshma Saujani, the founder of GirlsWhoCode, a US-based non-profit organization that provides STEM support to women and girls with the aim to increase the participation of women and girls in STEM.
Most often we talk about the gender barrier in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and why it\’s very important to get more girls in STEM.
Unfortunately, this gender barrier emanates from the upbringing of our girls. Due to some social and cultural norms in many African countries and communities, girls are made to feel incapable and inadequate of being Engineers, Technologists, and Scientists. Conditioned by such orientation, they eventually grow up to believe they don\’t belong in the STEM world.
In order to change this ugly rhetoric, there is urgent need to start supporting our young women by motivating and giving them an opportunity to engage in STEMLearning and practice what they learnt. As STEM continues to impact our social and economic endeavors today, we will need a gender-diverse workforce that reflects the perspectives, insights, aspirations, and talents of our youth population.
And like boys, girls are hugely important in shaping the future workplace through STEM, and we should start catching them young even before they get to go into second school.
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