MWM Welcomes New Staff Member

We are proud to announce Kayla Brown as new State Program Coordinator for MWM. She will be working to support Sheila Boyington, MWM Senior Advisor and State Director and President Thinking Media, to help make MWM a success in every state! Kayla is a graduate of University of Tennessee of Chattanooga with a Design Degree, and has worked for 3 years in a Chattanooga-based startup, wearing many hats at the company. We are excited to have Kayla join the MWM team and she is looking forward to contributing to the movement.

Do Girls Like Math? (Pddnet.com)

This is a test: Where are the highest proportions of women working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM): in affluent industrialized countries, or in less affluent, less economically developed countries?

The answer may surprise you. Mathematical and technical occupations and degree programs are considerably more male-dominated in rich, reputably gender-egalitarian societies like the U.S., than they are in poorer, more gender-traditional ones. Countries such as Iran, Romania and Malaysia are among the countries where women earn the largest share of science degrees; and in Indonesia, women earn nearly half of all engineering degrees. Read more here.

Outdated Stereotypes 'Continue to Restrict Girls in Engineering' (Works Management)

Just 7% of parents would encourage their girl to pursue a career in engineering, according to research from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) to mark the launch of its Engineer a Better World campaign. The research also reveals that parents could be limiting their child's future career decisions by having outdated perceptions of the jobs they think boys and girls are interested in. Parents of girls said their child would be most interested in pursuing a career in education and childcare (32%), the arts (29%), healthcare (26%) and hair and beauty (23%). In contrast, parents of boys thought information technology (47%), sport (33%) and engineering (28%) were sectors that would appeal to their child. Read more here.

 

Attracting more students into STEM education has long been a challenge for colleges and universities. For example, African-Americans make up only 5 percent of undergraduate engineering degrees, as compared with 13 percent of overall undergraduate enrollment. Latinos are fare similarly, and many schools wrestle with gross imbalances from a gender perspective. 

 

One reason is that many high school students have the impression that STEM programs are welcoming only to a limited range of population. To deal with this, many schools have created a variety of programs - scholarships, summer programs and so forth - intended to attract more diverse applicants to STEM. We hear about the "STEM pipeline" all the time. Read more here.

The Most Exclusive Boys' Club: America's Largest Startups (Fortune)

A Fortune analysis finds most of the largest, most celebrated and powerful startups have no women on their boards. Find out which ones - and what they say about it. It's no secret that the Fortune 500 is led mostly by men. Only 25 Fortune 500 companies have a woman as CEO, and 23 had all-male corporate boards when Fortune conducted an analysis earlier this year. Read more here.

Intel to Offer Scholarships to Women Studying Science and Technology (Irish Times)

Intel is seeking to encourage a new generation of women to take up careers in science and technology, be offering scholarships for STEM courses. The company's scholarship programme offers a monetary grant valued at €2,000 per annum as well as opportunities for work placements at the Intel Leixlip or Shannon campuses. The scholarships are open to female school leavers entering, in September 2015, specified four year undergraduate degree courses in science, technology and engineering at a variety of third level institutions across Ireland. "What we find is that the more technical rich in the employee mix becomes the less female candidates are available to fill roles and this is something which needs to be addressed," Intel said. Read more here.

 

Q&A with Cathy Engelbert: How Deloitte's New CEO Broke Gender Barriers (Standard Examiner)

When Cathy Engelbert started at Deloitte nearly 30 years ago, she was hard-pressed to find many female mentors among the accounting firm's top leadership ranks. Only 7 percent of Deloitte's partners and principals were women at the time, a statistic that prompted the firm to launch a major initiative in 1993 that was aimed at boosting its retention and advancement of women. 

 

Decades later, that effort appears to be paying off. Last week, Engelbert took over as Deloitte's new chief executive, making her the first woman to help any of the world's major professional services firms. Her election as leader of Deloitte's 65,000 U.S. employees is, she says, "a testament to what we started back then coming to fruition today." Read more here.

 

Sierra Leone News: US Embassy, Alumni Engages Girls on STEM (Awoko)

The United States (US) Embassy and alumni yesterday engaged young school going girls from different schools in the Western Area, encouraging them to pursue courses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths which is normally referring to as STEM because they are not normally studied by girls. 

 

Giving a background about the program which was held at the Sierra Leone Library Board, the US Public Affairs Officer Hollyn Green said during the ebola outbreak, lots of schools were closed, and during this time there has been a lot of teenage pregnancy. Therefore, the US Embassy and its collaborative partners brought together girls from different schools to pursue careers in Science. Read more here. 

 

Cards Against Humanity Science Pack: Helping Support Women in STEM (Slate)

I am very pleased to let y'all know that the ridiculously fun and grotesquely crass game Cards Against Humanity has released an expansion of science pack of cards I helped develop. And better yet: Sales of the pack go toward a full-ride scholarship for women seeking undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math! Read more here.

 

"STEM Success for Women Telesummit" Features Top Educational Experts and Practitioners (PR Newswire)

Community College educators will learn how to recruit and retain more women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) when they attend "The STEM Success for Women Telesummit." The virtual event will be held online April 13-16. The entire conference is free thanks to support from the National Science Foundation. 

 

"The telesummit will help educators - particularly those in community colleges - close the gender gap for women and girls in technology," aid Donna Milgram, Executive Director of The Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science (IWITTS). "This is a can't-miss event for educators who are serious about enrolling up to 25-50% female students in their STEM programs and ensuring high retention rates for their female and male students." Read more here.

 

Tech Savvy Conference to Expose Middle School Girls to STEM Careers (Cleveland)

Middle school girls in the Akron area can get a taste of what science, technology, engineering and mathematics have to offer at the Tech Savvy career conference April 25. The daylong, hands-on program is for girls in sixth through ninth grades who are interested in STEM careers, particularly in the manufacturing field. The program is sponsored by the American Association of University Women and funded by a grant from the Alcoa Foundation. Read more here.

 

Young, Latina Coding (Aljazeera America)

A new generation of tech leaders is emerging and they may change the face of Silicon Valley. Guest speakers on this episode include Deldelp Media, Founder & CEO of Avion Ventures and Sylvia Aguinaga, Program Coordinator of DIY Girls. Watch episode highlights here.