FINDING WHAT WOMEN WANT: DEVELOPING STRATEGIES TO INCREASE RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF WOMEN

摘要

Numerous reports have discussed the dearth of women in Science, Technology, Engineering; Mathematics (STEM) fields. Almost two-thirds of young children of age group 9-15 state that they enjoy science, but girls' attitudes and interests change by middle school. During high school, girls and boys take the same number of science courses. In addition, girls perform as well as boys in those courses. Despite comparable performance levels, girls rarely continue studying science at college level. Lack of female progress in STEM education has been observed in STEM fields despite multiple measures taken by universities, colleges, schools, industries, and other organizations dedicated to increasing awareness, providing mentoring services, and recruiting and sustaining women in STEM careers. It is puzzling for scholars who study demographics of STEM field, universities and industries to see the slow changing numbers of women in STEM career. The pipeline explanation suggests the lack of females in STEM fields is caused by an insufficient number of females who enter the field of graduate studies. By extension, the leaky pipeline; contributes to too many women leaving the field after entering because the experience they have is "uninviting, unaccommodating, and unappealing". The chilly classroom climate theory, a dearth of role models, bias, hostility, age, and the subtle among the gender are all potential factors that accumulate and make it more difficult for women to succeed in demanding fields.