It’s no secret that women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, fields. Nationally, in 2019, women made up 48% of the workforce, but just 27% of STEM workers. California does slightly better than the nation. San Francisco, San Jose, and Fremont all rank among the top five highest cities for women in these fields. But respectively, women still only make up 27.9%, 25.8%, and 25.7% of STEM roles filled by women in those cities.

Why is a state that often leads the nation in change not doing any better in employing women in science and technology fields? What’s at the core of the issue, and what can educators do to help change things?

Only 30% of students taking computer science courses in California high schools are female. Yet, females make up 49% of California high school students.

To change this, California must close the exposure and bias gaps and do a better job of giving female students proof of their stem capabilities.

Why aren’t there more female students taking STEM courses?

The answer is exposure and bias. Girls tend to be stigmatized from an early age and steered away from pursuing STEM fields or into pursuing only select fields — for example being a nurse instead of a doctor or a dental assistant instead of a dentist. Female students also too often don’t see women teaching STEM classes or working in STEM careers. They don’t see that woman can — and do — perform and even excel in these careers.

The California education system can close the exposure gap by introducing girls to the idea of STEM careers at an early age — as early as possible. It can start by making computer science a required foundation course for every student. That way, students — male or female — have a knowledge of what it is, some exposure to know whether they find it interesting and confidence to move on to the next level if they do.

The districts that have made computer science a graduation requirement or part of their first-year seminar or academy courses are seeing girls pursue different opportunities after high school because they’re exposed to STEM at a younger age.

That exposure should happen no later than eighth or ninth grade. It can happen even earlier if we have high school students do STEM-focused outreach to local elementary schools or have elementary STEM fairs as a common statewide practice. That exposure can cross grades and curriculum and even include parents.

Read the full article about female STEM representation by Melissa Jenkins and Trisha Oksner at EdSource.