{"id":4128,"date":"2021-11-10T23:48:12","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T04:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/?p=4128"},"modified":"2021-11-10T23:48:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T04:48:12","slug":"fostering-equity-in-stem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/2021\/11\/fostering-equity-in-stem\/","title":{"rendered":"Fostering Equity in STEM!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who do you think of when you think of a scientist? An engineer? A mathematician? It is probably a person that resembles maybe Albert Einstein, or Charles Darwin. If you google “famous scientists” or “famous mathematicians” or something similar to that, you are going to find a lot of old, white, men. Where are the women, the people of color, the people with differences? In STEM fields, minorities are underappreciated, underrepresented and weeded out by a number of societal and stereotypical standards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This image that comes to mind when people, children included, think of scientists, is only reinforcing the idea that that is what scientists look like. It is too often a white male, and this only reinforces the idea that women and minorities do not belong in science. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What should the representation of women and minorities be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theoretically, the demographics of people in STEM should be representative of the population. For our purposes we will look at demographics of people in the United States from the US Census Bureau in their 2019 report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This figure is a pie chart representing the populations of different races in the US according to the US Census Bureau. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

According to the figure above, and the idea that STEM fields should be representative of the population, more than 40% of STEM professionals should hold one of the above identities. Similarly, about half of them should identify as a woman. Unfortunately, women and other minority groups are underrepresented in the STEM field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the demographics within STEM?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April of 2021, the Pew Research Center published a report outlining the uneven progression of racial and ethnic diversity in STEM. Their reports are based on employed adults over the age of 25 and during the time period of 2017-2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This figure is a summary of the representation of these populations within the STEM field of adults who are employed and over the age of 25. The data was collected from 2017-2019. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As we compare the pie charts above, we can conclude that the STEM field is not representative of the populations in the United States. White people are significantly overrepresented in the STEM field, and those who are Hispanic, or black\/African American are significantly under represented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women in STEM has made progress toward being representative of the population. As discussed previously, women should theoretically make up about half of those in the STEM field. We do see this represented in the statistics, but within the STEM fields, women are drawn to health related fields more often than their male peers, holding 74% of the positions. However, women are severely underrepresented in engineering, physical science and computer science fields. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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