How Can Parents Encourage Young Girls To Pursue STEM Subjects?
Gender inequalities are a huge barrier to entry for women in a lot of different industries, and this problem starts at school. Studies show that girls are discouraged from studying math and STEM subjects at school, which ultimately limits their career path and continues to drive gender inequality in industries related to those subjects. Although changes need to be made in businesses and universities to create more opportunities for women in these areas, it’s equally important that young girls feel that they are able to study those subjects in the first place.
Unconscious bias on the part of teachers often pushes girls away from math and STEM subjects and this is a serious issue that must be addressed. There are a number of ways to do this but it’s important that parents combat the effect by encouraging girls to engage with those subjects if they are interested in them.
If you are a parent to a young girl and you are concerned about her future prospects, here are some simple ways you can encourage her to study math and STEM subjects.
Start Early
By the time girls reach high school, the attitude of their teachers has often killed any desire to study STEM subjects, so you need to start early if you want to encourage them. There are some great supplementary educational tools from organizations like Age of Learning that you can use at home to get young girls interested in math and science. By supplementing their education at home, you can correct the shortfalls of the schooling system and make sure that they have a rounded education that teaches them all of the skills they need. If they get interested in STEM at a young age, they are less likely to listen to those that try to discourage them later.
Introduce Them To Role Models
The idea that women can’t be successful in STEM-related industries is ridiculous because there are already many successful female scientists out there. People like Rosalind Franklin who helped discover DNA or Marie Curie who won a Nobel prize for her work on radioactivity are perfect role models to show young girls that they can pursue their passion for science. There are a lot of modern role models too, like Tiera Guinn, who was helping NASA build a revolutionary rocket before she even graduated college.
Build Their Confidence
Girls are told that thinking scientifically is a masculine trait and they don’t have those same skills. This leads to a serious lack of confidence with STEM subjects and ultimately causes many girls to give up on them. There is often a worry that if they try to study STEM subjects and struggle, they are just proving the stereotype that girls can’t do science, so they don’t try in the first place. It’s important that you help them build their confidence and teach them that it doesn’t matter if they struggle at first. In fact, trial and error is crucial in science, so it’s important to change the way that they think about failure and view it as an opportunity for growth.
These are all effective ways to encourage young girls to pursue STEM subjects and help to combat gender inequality in these areas.
