In the last few decades, women have made immense strides in both educational and occupational success, garnering higher degrees, wages and visibility in the workforce. Today, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, women hold some 57 percent of the nation's bachelor's degrees, and more than 60 percent of master's degrees. This represents a remarkable shift; between 1970 and 2012, the proportion of women age 25-64 with a college degree more than doubled. : Even after all this progress, women are notably under-represented in the fields of Math, Science, Engineering and Tech, aka STEM. The cold hard facts are only 5.5 percent to 22.3 percent of civil, industrial, chemical and mechanical engineers are women, and they represent just a quarter of the workforce involved with computer and mathematical sciences. In this presentation we will examine the reasons for this discrepancy and propose solutions to change it.

Why STEM is still a four-letter word for women

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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