According to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2018, about 24% of engineering degrees go to women, even though women outnumber men in graduate schools overall. Only 10% of innovative startups are founded by women, and women hold only 3% of the top management jobs in information and computer technology fields. Why are there less women in STEM spaces? Part of the reason is that many girls and women don’t identify with STEM interests. In response, Women In STEM clubs and organizations have popped up all over the world in colleges and high schools to help promote female confidence in STEM fields and change the face of STEM.  

Here at MHS, our Women In STEM club hosts weekly Friday morning hangout meetings to promote community and mentorship. About once a month, the club leaders invite a woman from a STEM field to speak at MHS about her field, her work, and her career path.  In these meetings, I’ve heard the Director of the the Minneapolis Crime Lab explain how the bad guys get caught. I met a young computer scientist, Tomiko Partington, who studied chip design engineering at Northwestern for her undergraduate degree, then traveled the world between Chicago, London, and France in her twenties, and has now settled down in Minneapolis in a firm that helps Fortune 500 companies (of which there are 19 in Minnesota) prepare their AI strategy.  I listened to the only woman on a board of company leaders at Fabcon describe how she loves her company’s work, but what really makes her excited to go to work is knowing that her work is making her company and its culture a safer place for women entering the IT world.

Before joining Minnetonka Women In STEM, I’d known I liked science and thought math was pretty cool, but I couldn’t really imagine myself pursuing STEM professionally. But listening to the stories of these women in STEM, I started to see how jobs that I had before labeled as boring were actually pretty incredible. Engineering means problem solving, and studying in STEM classes can help give me the skills I need to tackle the big problems of today’s society like global food and water scarcity, antibiotic resistance or today’s plastic pollution problem.

In any advocacy for science and engineering, I definitely don’t mean to undermine the value of any non STEM interests. I’m probably one of the most enthusiastic supporters of humanities, art and literature you’ll find around MHS. The big epiphany for me this year was understanding that I can love writing and science, be an engineer and an artist and sit behind a desk (sometimes) and change the world.

A cliché story arc? Maybe, but I’m glad I passed through it anyhow. I’m crazy grateful that I’ve gone to a high school that gave me so many opportunities to explore my interests. I won’t be making calls or sending emails for Minnetonka Women In STEM next year, but I’ve been wowed by the skills and gumption of our underclassmen Women In STEM leaders and am thrilled to see what they have in store for MHS next year.