CCRM’s team of women engineers in 2015 for the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign, coincidentally the inaugural year of IDWGS. L-R Fernanda Masri PhD, Emily Titus PhD, May MacIntosh, Camila Londono PhD, Joanna Fromstein PEng., Lesley Chan PhD, and Hayley Christian.
2025 marks the tenth anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s declaration of February 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (IDWGS). UNESCO has named this year’s theme “Unpacking STEM Careers: Her Voice in Science.” This made me reflect on the persistent gender gap in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, and the fact that women are less likely to pursue STEM careers because, as girls, their STEM education is not prioritized or supported. After all, there’s a reason IDWGS specifically names girls: inspiring generations of women to launch successful careers in STEM starts by reaching them when they are young and providing equitable access to STEM education and opportunities.
Statistics Canada observed that female high school graduates are 29.8 per cent less likely than their male counterparts to choose a post-secondary STEM education, and 36.4 per cent less likely to pursue STEM bachelor’s degrees in particular. It follows, then, that women constitute less than a quarter of the people employed in these fields.
What are some reasons for this? There are many. One explanation is that women may decide against pursuing STEM careers because they seem incompatible to other parts of life, including motherhood. The expectation to work long, odd hours in a lab, for example, may not align with childcare responsibilities. However, although these barriers explain why working women of working age may not want STEM jobs, they don’t account for girls not choosing this career path.
To ensure generations of women to come have access and representation in these fields, the interest and involvement must be fostered in girls throughout elementary and secondary education. Below, I’ve laid out some ways that educators, parents and anybody passionate about getting girls interested in STEM can do their part.
- Getting girls involved in STEM extracurriculars
In my role as Communications Coordinator at CCRM, I’ve worked closely with Visions of Science, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing equitable access and representation in STEM education, and opportunities for Black and racialized youth in low-income communities across the Greater Toronto Area. The organization isn’t dedicated specifically to providing girls with access to STEM, but they’re tackling disadvantage and inequality from other fronts, such as race and income barriers.
Months ago, I attended a Visions of Science showcase event, where students in grades 5-11 presented science experiments that they worked on in their summer camp programs. In the presentations from younger students, what struck me was the creativity and originality necessary to come up with and execute the experiments (my favourite: “Does swallowed gum stay in your stomach for seven years?” accompanied by a 3-D diagram of the digestive tract). This is an important point to emphasize when presenting STEM to girls (and boys): it isn’t all analytical, all the time. There’s a place for creativity, originality and fun.
The older students, who were in high school, had the opportunity to take on summer internships at institutions like the University of Toronto and York University. What better way to get youth—male or female—excited about these career possibilities than having them intern in state-of-the-art facilities, with some of the world’s top professors and researchers? What it comes down to is opportunity and exposure: the opportunity to work in these spaces will instill in girls the confidence to follow STEM into post-secondary education.
There are other organizations focused on providing girls, specifically, with STEM access. The Girl Guides of Canada, for example, launched a Girls In STEM program. If STEM extra-curricular programs are normalized to the same degree as sports or arts, students’ perception of the fields will shift from purely academic to genuine interest.
- Giving girls female STEM role models
How can we expect girls to follow STEM post-secondary education and careers when, from the outside-in, they still seem like a boys’ club? There are a plethora of female scientists, engineers and mathematicians who have changed our world, and by teaching girls about these women, they’ll see that they can go on to do the same. Take Mary Jackson (the first African American female engineer at NASA), Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan, the NASA employees who inspired the movie “Hidden Figures.” The movie was about their work and how it helped make history in the 1960s during the United States’ space race with the Soviet Union.
Perhaps girls would be interested to learn about Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, or Ada Lovelace, the first person—man or woman—to write a computer program. We don’t even need to look to history for great female role models: we can look to Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, who was at the forefront of developing the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. The more that girls see examples of women pursuing STEM, breaking barriers and societal expectations, early in their education, the more likely they are to view STEM as a feasible option.
- Being a STEM mentor
While public and historical figures can light a spark in girls’ interest in STEM, consistent and personal mentorship will nurture it into a viable career path. If you’re a woman working in STEM, consider reaching out to STEM groups to see how you can get involved. Find some suggestions below.
Visions of Science (Toronto)
Canadian Association for Girls In Science (CAGIS) (Canada)
Society for Canadian Women in Science & Technology (Canada)
Girls Who Code (international)
Million Women Mentors (international)
500 Women Scientists (international)
Women working in STEM can also encourage girls’ interest in the fields by being visible. In the featured picture above, CCRM’s female engineers participated in the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign to raise awareness of gender stereotypes in engineering. Read the post from 2015 here and note that CCRM’s workforce was much smaller a decade ago.
By investing in STEM education for girls early on in their lives, the returns are immeasurable, as evidenced by female scientists like Dr. Corbett. On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, let’s commit to doing our part to get girls interested, involved and invested in STEM.
Meighan Atkinson
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- Advancing women in STEM starts with investing in girls (#IDWGS2025) - February 11, 2025
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