Increasing Gender Diversity in STEM
Lack of gender diversity in STEM studies and careers remains a persistent problem in most western countries, for example most western countries have 20% or less of graduating engineers as female, and often less than 10% of the engineering workforce.Much research has been done on the reasons for this imbalance, with a general consensus that a resolution is highly challenging, requiring multifaceted action from a very wide range of stakeholders. The scale of the problem and the complex and interacting factors involved, provide significant challenges in the design, implementation and assessment of remedial initiatives.A key difficulty to be addressed is the disparity between the potential female students’ perception of STEM careers and roles (in society) and ability to personally envisage themselves in these roles/careers. Among the reasons for this are imposter syndrome, doubts about personal capabilities, lack of role models and concerns about social inclusion in a male dominated environment.This project will specifically address this challenge by constructing a multi-dimensional profiling tool, which allows potential students to match their perceived skills, abilities and interests to those of existing STEM students and successful graduates in the field.
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