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Published: September 7, 2007
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EmailWomen have made great strides in the workforce in just a generation or two. Currently, it’s estimated that nearly 50 percent of the overall workforce is comprised of women. However, women still lag behind men when choosing careers in the sciences, namely technology, engineering and mathematics. Also known as STEM fields, women make up only 12 percent of that workforce, and that’s something that has local educators concerned. A program at Tidewater Community College, called STEM Pioneer Project, hopes to change that low statistics with college career guidance, financial support and maybe even some friendship and mentoring. The program is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and is operated at all TCC campuses in Hampton Roads -- Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake.
“The idea is to help create a more diverse workforce in these fields,” said project director Susan Fincke. Diversity is needed in these fields because “we are all end users,” said Dr. Stephanie Blaisdell, a consultant who helps organizations such as TCC’s STEM Pioneer Project. Diversity results in the best solutions and products, she added. For example, said Blaisdell, when the first automobile airbags were brought to the marketplace they were designed to protect the average figure – a man’s average figure. “However, women drive most of the mini vans,” she added. “So when an airbag inflates it is often too powerful for a woman.”
The STEM fields as a whole aren’t attracting enough future workers. Currently, the United States ranks 24th in the world for science and technology fields. When young women do become involved in STEM fields, it is usually to help people, the environment or animals. Blaisdell points out that currently there are more women enrolling in medical school than men. “And women tend to go into biomedical engineering rather than mechanical or civil engineering,” she added. This is where the STEM Pioneer program steps in to give young women, enrolled at Tidewater Community College, confidence and guidance to pursue engineering degrees. Fincke begins with a short presentation to freshmen women enrolled in upper level math and science classes. “We give the information about these growing fields and the need for more diversity,” she said. “Hopefully, they end up in my office.” So far the program has enrolled 76 student participants. The final goal is to have young women pursue a STEM curriculum at a four-year institution once they complete their associates’ degree at Tidewater Community College. Fincke adds that mentoring is one of the biggest offerings of the program. “We give the students a chance to spend time in the field and work environment,” she said. “We also send them to conferences and workshops and to work with members of the Society of Women Engineers,” she said. “That way they see and work with women who are actually doing it. Site visits play a big role as well,” Fincke said. “When they see women working in these fields, they find out it is realistic.”
Part of the programs helps female students learn how to deal with stereotypes and possibly, even discrimination. “There is still a stereotype that women don’t want to get dirty,” said Fincke. “We tell them that they do belong in these fields,” she added. Joy Daniels, 20, of Newport News, participates in the STEM Pioneer program. She hopes to earn her associate’s degree in science in December and study biomedical engineering at Old Dominion University in Norfolk in the spring. “The support from the program has kept me on track and I know that everybody feels the pressure,” said the Kecoughtan High School graduate. Daniels attended the Women in Engineering Conference in Kansas City earlier this year as part of the program.“Meeting with those women help me keep on trying,” she said. Robyn Short, 19, of Virginia Beach, said the program has helped her form new friendships and a study group. She is currently studying computer science.“With these girls, there is a sense of community,” she said. The Cox High School graduate hopes to eventually transfer to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. While Fincke focuses on the freshmen and sophomores in college, she emphasizes the need to encourage even younger girls to pursue STEM fields, emphasizing the need to reach out to middle school girls. “The break happens in middle school, where girls’ confidence begins to diminish,” Blaisdell said. Preteen girls are becoming more aware of gender roles, she said. “They are hypersensitive as to what is okay and what is not okay,” she said. Educators says parents play a crucial role in encouraging middle school age girls to pursue the sciences and to help them work on their confidence level. “In some cases, they have to be encouraged even more than the boys,” Fincke said.
