OUR VIEW: STEM valued, but all fields need women
On Wednesday, the Gender Chip Project held a panel to get people thinking about what it’s like to be a young woman training in college for a career in the professions of science, math, engineering and technology.
At a time when STEM is the a huge buzzword in both government and education, we’ve seen an increasing amount of programming encouraging women to go into technical fields. We’re facing the music: Technology is where many jobs are. Women, and students in general, can make more money in these fields.
But, as the cliche goes, money isn’t everything. It’s important, of course, but most will agree money itself does not make a person. What’s important is that a person can do something fulfilling, whether it be as a engineer or a historian.
It’s good that we’re encouraging women to study STEM programs, but it’s important to remember we need female historians. Female family counselors. Female teachers. Instead of pushing women in a direction that the government says is best, why aren’t we trusting them to find what’s best for themselves? Open every door, certainly, but encouraging people to do what makes them happy should be the ultimate goal.
There may be fewer jobs in humanities or education than in computer science, but they are equal in importance. Classes in the humanities teach how people function and communicate. Curing cancer and designing bridges are necessary steps to creating a better world, but they’re not worth much if the people doing them can’t get their projects into the right hands.
Governor Gary Herbert has pushed the state to spend $20 million on STEM education this year, which could be matched by Utah’s eight colleges and universities. This is an extraordinary amount of money, and while it’s not necessarily misplaced, both USU and the governor’s administration need to think seriously about what’s being encouraged. A female who wants to study English shouldn’t waver on her decision to attend college because she’s having a harder time finding funding than a student going into a technological field. Though mild, this can be its own form of discrimination.
If this is truly a woman’s world, women need to be everywhere – not just in STEM.