Building a passion for STEM studies among women and girls
We recently celebrated International Day of Women and Girls in Science – and there’s much to celebrate. But there’s much work to be done, as well.
It’s a day to celebrate just how far we’ve come since Elsie MacGill, aircraft designer and Canada’s first female engineer, was asked to leave the University of British Columbia in 1921 because of her gender.
If that accomplished entrepreneur and eventual Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. graduate were alive today, almost 100 years later, would she be impressed that 20 percent of Canada’s post-secondary STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students are female? Or would she wonder why the ratio wasn’t better?
We think MacGill, the under-sung “Queen of the Hurricanes” would be shaking her head, alongside many Canadians, at our discouraging stats.
While jobs in STEM-related domains are growing three times faster than other parts of the economy and paying 12 percent higher, fewer than 25 percent of those who hold these jobs are women. Only 13 percent of professional engineers are female.