Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics

(STEM)

Metaphorically speaking, STEM can be viewed as a pipeline that creates a pathway from early childhood education toward advanced STEM professional careers. Concerning equity and diversity for underrepresented minority groups, the STEM ‘leaking’ pipeline represents a system dysfunction. With centuries of racism and inequity, our social system has resulted in a lack of STEM diversity, primarily African-Americans and Latinos.  

There are countless more women whose contributions were left in the dark to propagate the racist ideology of ‘black inferiority.’ These scientists’ stories would have impacted African-American communities to encourage more children and youth to explore STEM careers.

According to the National Girls Collaborative Project, U.S. Ethnic Minority Women participate in STEM at the collegiate level with only 3 % in Engineering, 6.5 % in Physical Sciences, 5.4 % in Mathematics, and 4.8 % in Computer Science. Girlswhocode.org’s 2017 annual report reveals that 74 % of middle school girls express an interest in engineering, science, and math. Still, only 0.3 % choose computer science as a major when they get to college. These findings suggest that there is a stigma attached to girls who want to explore STEM. Currently, women make up only about 18 % of computer science undergrads. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, even though women earn roughly 57 % of all bachelor’s degrees, only about 18 % of undergrad computer science degrees go to females. Girls’ interest in STEM peaks in middle school but drops off in high school. There is a need for more girls living in urban areas to get involved in STEM: Women receive far fewer degrees, with 18 % in computer science and 19 % in Engineering. Sixty-nine percent of women who have not pursued careers in information technology attribute their choice to not knowing what opportunities are available.

Written by Petulia Blake, Ph.D. & Ruth E. Blake, Ph.D

DR. RUTH E. BLAKE

Advisor, Poetic Haven STEM Education

Thought Leader of Science and Society

Dr. Ruth E. Blake was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. She is a senior faculty member in the departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences Chemical and Environmental Engineering and in the Yale School of the Environment. As a member of the Yale faculty since 2000, she has advised a host of undergraduate/graduate students and postdocs and has also been actively engaged in a range of K-12 educational outreach and science curriculum development activities. She is a geologist and biogeochemist who is deeply engaged in ocean and space exploration and her core research has focused broadly on the co-evolution of Earth and life with emphasis on phosphate, a major chemical requirement for life, that also comprises the structural backbone of DNA, cell walls and ATP, which supplies fundamental energy to all cells. Over the years, Professor Blake has developed many new tools to explore scientific questions ranging from the changing temperature of Earth’s oceans over the past 3.8 billion years, to the existence of life on Mars and the metabolic rates of cancer cells.