• Question: How would you get more women into stem?

    Asked by owens dog to Reshma, Alison on 5 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Alison Dufresne

      Alison Dufresne answered on 5 Nov 2018:

      There’s no one answer to this. Personally I like doing outreach and encouraging managers to hire more women but I know that’s not enough. I think it has to be a cultural change in how we raise children. Girls just need the same encouragement as boys when it comes to engaging with STEM. Also we need to stop pushing gender specific toys and let children choose for themselves what they want to do!

    • Photo: Reshma Vora

      Reshma Vora answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      I’d like to organize some form of motivational talks, where women in STEM go and speak in schools. This platform will allow females to look at older successful women in STEM which they may not have in their life already. There are three important area’s i’d like to focus on:

      1. Kill the maths myth – you don’t have to be good at maths to be in STEM
      2. Role Models – I think we need to show females other female role models which they can relate to
      3. Talking about women in STEM – This will help younger females broaden their horizons.

      I’m doing a motivational speech at my old high school later this month and I’m hoping that will be the start of something, I want to do more and hope other women will join in too.

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