did you know that 15 is the exact age a
girl loses interest in math and little
does this fifteen-year-old knows that
she’s kicked off a domino effect of
companies organizations institutions and
governments even dining room
conversations asking one simple question
how do we get more girls interested in
math how do we get more women to pursue
financial careers how do we get more
young ladies to take on science and
technology now I’ve been a part of these
conversations over the last few months
and had some heated debates with friends
and what I’ve realized is that no one
has an answer no one knows how we can
get more women to be involved in science
technology finance engineering because
math is the conduit to those industries
and let’s be very clear the industries
that I’m talking about
they are running our lives as we speak
right now and with less than 28 percent
of women being represented and 40
percent are leaving at an annual rate
it’s time for us to step back and pay
attention and figure out what’s really
going on because if women are less
likely to enter but more likely to leave
I gotta tell you the numbers aren’t
looking in the favor of women right now
now as a former computer scientist and a
systems engineer with the Navy and I run
a business right now where I talk about
finance and budgeting on a daily basis
it’s been fascinating just being a part
of this journey and seeing a young girl
being interested in math to becoming a
teenager that says you know what that
math thing just isn’t for me and then
being a part of a department in college
where every year a woman would leave to
now where I work with grown women who
cringe when you bring up the four-letter
word in a th and then I get a
five-minute dialogue on how they’re not
good at math
than how they will never be good at math
and this is kind of sad to me because I
see the beauty of math I see the world
through math color glasses and I can see
that it can take you anywhere that you
want to go and you couldn’t have told me
at fifteen years old that flipping
through a magazine and seeing an ad for
programmers for Sega Genesis yes I’m
showing my age here and making a
decision right then and there that I was
going to pursue computers in college
that I would later be able to travel the
world I would meet some of the most
amazing minds when it comes to
technology and I would just have so much
fun and I would be right here today but
girls don’t know that but girls don’t
know that and I didn’t know that unless
we start telling them but this is why I
care and you might be saying okay
Felicia that’s a good idea
yeah math let’s all get on board and you
might be saying in the back of your mind
like why do I really care
here’s why you care because Katherine
Johnson was a 15 year old girl who later
became a woman and who was encouraged by
her parents and she helped us to get to
the moon Patricia bath was a 15 year old
girl who later pursued medicine and
because she liked to tinker
she created a device that corrected
cataracts so people can have vision
josephine cochrane ten-year-old girl and
i worship at her her every day because
he engineered the dishwasher you cannot
tell me a dishwasher is not changing
your life that’s why we need more
fifteen-year-old girls in technology or
to at least help me with the chores
around the house but there’s a 15 year
old girl that might be sitting next to
you or in your house right now that saw
her parents go through the Great
Recession and never fully recover and is
sitting on an idea that can change how
we manage finances but she’s about to
close the book on it because she’s not
getting the one thing that we can do and
that is support now we know it takes a
village
to raise a child but it takes a
community of hardcore supporters who
give a damn to make sure young girl
stays encouraged and has confidence to
pursue a career in math and that’s the
one thing all of the money all of the
industries are spending right now when
they do their research that’s the one
thing that they cannot figure out and
that is the support from the friends
family and community that’s us and if we
don’t do something we lose something
really great in the future so I have one
simple solution one simple solution now
this is me reaching inside in my
research brain and I just want to try
something at least once or at least for
a decade and you might think I’m a
little nutty but that’s okay I’m up here
today I want us to create a stereotype
that all girls are good at math from the
moment that they are born now I know
stereotypes are negative and you’re like
falesha I really don’t want to do
stereotypes I get it they are lazy and
it is our brain short-circuiting a way
for us to categorize somebody based on
how they look how they represent or how
they present themselves it’s a we can
interact with them but I want to use
that power of stereotypes because they
are powerful because if the world
believes it we start to believe it I
want to tarnis this and make sure that
we use the power of stereotypes and
assumption and use it for the greater
good of our girls and just imagine what
would happen if your niece knew that she
was great at math or if we just assumed
your cousin’s or your daughters or the
women in your lives were great at math
and just imagine if you just start
telling your mom hey you’re great at
math or you tell your grandmother your
daughter your sister your best friend
what if you just started telling them
right now that they are great at math
what would happen with their confidence
and what would happen if you yelled out
the window to your neighbor running and
you say girl you are great at math
now she may think you’re a little nutty
that’s okay sciences are a little nutty
but that’s how you get up on stages like
this but you know what that risk that if
you don’t do something that if we don’t
do something we run the risk of women
being unwanted unneccesary and not
needed when it comes to the future
innovation that can change our world are
you willing to Rishta better yet do you
even care and if you do I have one
simple task for you for every woman that
says that she’s not great at math I want
you to make sure she stands on her two
feet and you look her in the eye he said
yes you are and I believe in you for
every young girl that’s about to start
abyss that is pursuing a degree in stem
and is having a hard time pick up the
phone call her and say you’re great at
math and you deserve to be where you are
and I am supporting you for every
fifteen-year-old that’s about to close
the book and say you know what math is
not my thing it heard the support that
she needs so that she can get better for
every 11-year old that is jazzed about
her coding Club her robotics team here’s
the thing with those girls they already
know they’re good at math our job is not
to screw them up
and from the moment that they are born I
just want you to do one simple thing
when they are in your arms I just want
you to remind them every day that all
girls are great at math [Applause]
girl loses interest in math and little
does this fifteen-year-old knows that
she’s kicked off a domino effect of
companies organizations institutions and
governments even dining room
conversations asking one simple question
how do we get more girls interested in
math how do we get more women to pursue
financial careers how do we get more
young ladies to take on science and
technology now I’ve been a part of these
conversations over the last few months
and had some heated debates with friends
and what I’ve realized is that no one
has an answer no one knows how we can
get more women to be involved in science
technology finance engineering because
math is the conduit to those industries
and let’s be very clear the industries
that I’m talking about
they are running our lives as we speak
right now and with less than 28 percent
of women being represented and 40
percent are leaving at an annual rate
it’s time for us to step back and pay
attention and figure out what’s really
going on because if women are less
likely to enter but more likely to leave
I gotta tell you the numbers aren’t
looking in the favor of women right now
now as a former computer scientist and a
systems engineer with the Navy and I run
a business right now where I talk about
finance and budgeting on a daily basis
it’s been fascinating just being a part
of this journey and seeing a young girl
being interested in math to becoming a
teenager that says you know what that
math thing just isn’t for me and then
being a part of a department in college
where every year a woman would leave to
now where I work with grown women who
cringe when you bring up the four-letter
word in a th and then I get a
five-minute dialogue on how they’re not
good at math
than how they will never be good at math
and this is kind of sad to me because I
see the beauty of math I see the world
through math color glasses and I can see
that it can take you anywhere that you
want to go and you couldn’t have told me
at fifteen years old that flipping
through a magazine and seeing an ad for
programmers for Sega Genesis yes I’m
showing my age here and making a
decision right then and there that I was
going to pursue computers in college
that I would later be able to travel the
world I would meet some of the most
amazing minds when it comes to
technology and I would just have so much
fun and I would be right here today but
girls don’t know that but girls don’t
know that and I didn’t know that unless
we start telling them but this is why I
care and you might be saying okay
Felicia that’s a good idea
yeah math let’s all get on board and you
might be saying in the back of your mind
like why do I really care
here’s why you care because Katherine
Johnson was a 15 year old girl who later
became a woman and who was encouraged by
her parents and she helped us to get to
the moon Patricia bath was a 15 year old
girl who later pursued medicine and
because she liked to tinker
she created a device that corrected
cataracts so people can have vision
josephine cochrane ten-year-old girl and
i worship at her her every day because
he engineered the dishwasher you cannot
tell me a dishwasher is not changing
your life that’s why we need more
fifteen-year-old girls in technology or
to at least help me with the chores
around the house but there’s a 15 year
old girl that might be sitting next to
you or in your house right now that saw
her parents go through the Great
Recession and never fully recover and is
sitting on an idea that can change how
we manage finances but she’s about to
close the book on it because she’s not
getting the one thing that we can do and
that is support now we know it takes a
village
to raise a child but it takes a
community of hardcore supporters who
give a damn to make sure young girl
stays encouraged and has confidence to
pursue a career in math and that’s the
one thing all of the money all of the
industries are spending right now when
they do their research that’s the one
thing that they cannot figure out and
that is the support from the friends
family and community that’s us and if we
don’t do something we lose something
really great in the future so I have one
simple solution one simple solution now
this is me reaching inside in my
research brain and I just want to try
something at least once or at least for
a decade and you might think I’m a
little nutty but that’s okay I’m up here
today I want us to create a stereotype
that all girls are good at math from the
moment that they are born now I know
stereotypes are negative and you’re like
falesha I really don’t want to do
stereotypes I get it they are lazy and
it is our brain short-circuiting a way
for us to categorize somebody based on
how they look how they represent or how
they present themselves it’s a we can
interact with them but I want to use
that power of stereotypes because they
are powerful because if the world
believes it we start to believe it I
want to tarnis this and make sure that
we use the power of stereotypes and
assumption and use it for the greater
good of our girls and just imagine what
would happen if your niece knew that she
was great at math or if we just assumed
your cousin’s or your daughters or the
women in your lives were great at math
and just imagine if you just start
telling your mom hey you’re great at
math or you tell your grandmother your
daughter your sister your best friend
what if you just started telling them
right now that they are great at math
what would happen with their confidence
and what would happen if you yelled out
the window to your neighbor running and
you say girl you are great at math
now she may think you’re a little nutty
that’s okay sciences are a little nutty
but that’s how you get up on stages like
this but you know what that risk that if
you don’t do something that if we don’t
do something we run the risk of women
being unwanted unneccesary and not
needed when it comes to the future
innovation that can change our world are
you willing to Rishta better yet do you
even care and if you do I have one
simple task for you for every woman that
says that she’s not great at math I want
you to make sure she stands on her two
feet and you look her in the eye he said
yes you are and I believe in you for
every young girl that’s about to start
abyss that is pursuing a degree in stem
and is having a hard time pick up the
phone call her and say you’re great at
math and you deserve to be where you are
and I am supporting you for every
fifteen-year-old that’s about to close
the book and say you know what math is
not my thing it heard the support that
she needs so that she can get better for
every 11-year old that is jazzed about
her coding Club her robotics team here’s
the thing with those girls they already
know they’re good at math our job is not
to screw them up
and from the moment that they are born I
just want you to do one simple thing
when they are in your arms I just want
you to remind them every day that all
girls are great at math [Applause]
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