Is it just me or does it seem like women are decreasing in the stem fields? well yes they are! My group and I came together to bring awareness about the gender gap in the stem fields. As for myself I did some activism myself if I do say myself hehe 🙂 It’s funny because I even tried to get our message across in other classes I was taking. We had the choice to discuss an issue that was going on in the world and I said hey, why not use my gender activist project as a topic for the class. It wasn’t about saving time to do work, but this topic hits home with me most definitely because I started out in the stem major and I was told to change it because the competition between men and women. I have an instagram and I’d always post and repost things that spoke about things pertaining to our topic. I’m not the best at activism, but I learned that as long as I get the message across then I did my part. Since I been at school I haven’t really been able to attend church that much, but just to get the message across just amongst the younger populations especially I would just go around and ask about 6 girls and 6 guys what do they think of the stem fields and do they think the gap is logical or just plain right sexist. Overall most responses were it’s not logical and something should be changed about it, but no one really thought that change could happen. I used to think the same way, but it only takes your voice. The interesting thing that I thought about it all was some people felt that men are dominant so of course there would be a gap. I also used to think the same way, but why crush another persons dream because of a particular viewpoint. My post says “Keep calm and join a stem program” this isn’t to force anyone, but to encourage anyone especially a female who has doubt in perusing in that field. I didn’t do anything spectacular or too special, but I did speak a lot about the gap and I tried to also speak to people I didn’t really know before. for example like my classmates and peers that I was probably introduced by other friends etc. I asked about eight girls here at UMBC if they’d join a stem field and only two out of the eight said yes 😦 One reason was it was too hard and the other was they couldn’t see themselves going too far. It was one girl in particular who said this, her name was Asia and I asked her, “well why do you feel like that,?” and she said, “because it’s not that realistic to see a girl like me being a biologist or a math teacher.” I was shocked, but she had a point when she said all the stem related courses are mainly taught by male teachers. This was another confession that I had to face. I didn’t want her to know that she was getting to me, but hey there’s always going to be someone to challenge you. However I felt good about speaking about the gap in STEM fields and I felt like achieved something.. The feeling was indescribable 🙂
Studies in Feminist Activism 