STEM Careers: 15 ways you can encourage girls to pursue them

For those of you who share our concerns about the disproportionate number of males to females in STEM careers, we have good and bad news. First the good news: A 2012 study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that 15-year-old-girls (from over 60 developed countries) generally outperform boys in science. This seems to suggest that the assumption that girls just aren’t “interested” in science holds little water.

Now the bad news: These findings do not apply to the United States, Britain and Canada.

In the United States, research has found that elementary-aged girls as well as boys have positive attitudes toward science. In fact, a study of fourth graders showed that 66 percent of girls and 68 percent of boys take an interest in science—but something starts happening around the age of thirteen. According to Susan Gibbs Goetz, it’s around this age that “an achievement gap appears in most science content areas, and by the age of seventeen, girls achieve at a notably lower level than boys, particularly in physics.

We want to change this. We believe that supporting female students and encouraging them to pursue science and math is important not only for women—who, on average, earn 33 percent more than those in non-STEM occupations—but also for our country, particularly if we plan to successfully build, innovate and restore our economy.

To help teachers approach STEM subjects in a way that resonates with female students, we’d like to share 15 tips from Susan Gibbs’s book, Science for Girls: Successful Classroom Strategies.

STEM Careers: 15 ways you can encourage girls to pursue them

• Mentally divide your room into quadrants and when one seems a little too quiet, say something like, “Let’s hear from someone in the back right corner.”
• Establish rules for participation and rotate jobs within each group. For example, when we place our students in groups, each group will select a “secretary” to take notes and keep track of the group’s conclusions. Be sure that the secretary is not always a girl.
• Boys tend to receive more feedback and help that builds their self-esteem. Take note of how and to whom you give feedback. This will help ensure that you are treating male and female students equally.
• Encourage all students to take additional math and science courses.
• Encourage girls to participate in extracurricular math and science activities. If your district does not have organized girls’ clubs, encourage them to start one.
• Make it mandatory for all students to learn how to set up and use all electronic equipment.
• Provide students with female role models. Research shows that girls need to see females in certain professions or career choices to visualize themselves in the same or similar roles.
• Use gender-inclusive language and avoid generalizations that stereotype women in certain roles.
• Analyze curriculum for gender bias and use it as a springboard for open discussion and critical thinking.
• Recognize the roles both men and women have played in mathematics and science.  
• Expose students to female role models by bringing in guest speakers.
• Call on girls as often as you do boys, and be sure to ask the girls some of the higher-level cognitive questions. Research shows that both male and female teachers initiate more interaction with boys, and on higher cognitive levels.
• Keep an interaction journal where you keep track of the quantity and quality of interactions with students.
• Make eye contact with all students and call them by name.
• Avoid recruiting students to perform classroom duties based on traditional gender roles. For example, do not ask only boys to assist in carrying boxes and girls to clean shelves.