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Authors: Dr Katriona O’Sullivan, Digital Skills Lecturer, ALL Institute, Maynooth University. Dr Serena Clarke, Post-Doctoral Researcher, ALL Institute, Maynooth University. Dr Holly Foley, Programme Manager, STEM Passport for Inclusion, ALL Institute Maynooth University.
When thinking about women’s participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), we often use the leaky pipeline as an analogy. There are specific places where women ‘leak’ out. For example, in school, young girls who show an early interest in science careers have often changed their minds by the time they reach secondary school due to a lack of STEM subjects and STEM supports being offered to them. In college women who opt for STEM often change their minds before graduation. Those who do graduate with a STEM degree often leak out of the pipeline after graduation -opting for careers that are suitable to their family life. While others hit the glass ceiling when trying to progress into STEM leadership roles. In all cases, we see that women leak out of the STEM pipeline more than men do (Clark Blickenstaff, 2005). When considering the pipeline analogy, it is about time that we admitted as a society, especially on a day like today –International Women and Girl in STEM Day– that the STEM pipeline is well and truly broken– in fact, we need a whole new plumbing system… and we could probably do with a group of female scientists and engineers on hand to make sure it doesn’t break again.
Continue reading “Women & Girls in STEM: We Need a New Pipeline!”