engineering colleges want more girls
there are a lot of scholarships out
there for us
admittance rates can be higher and more
girls just need to be in stem in general
we hear about this all the time we all
know it’s an issue we all know they’re
trying to fix it but we don’t really
talk about why it’s an issue in the
first place
and you can’t solve the problem only
where it’s occurring you can’t just get
more girls into engineering by making it
easier for them to get into engineering
colleges you have to look at the source
you have to look at how starting as
young as kindergarteners girls are
treated differently spoken to
differently and motivated differently so
when I was really little I wasn’t a Girl
Scouts troop we went camping once and
there were cabins and I think we want
horseback riding at one point but the
majority of the time we were sitting
around doing arts and crafts and making
cards for our parents on holidays I know
Girl Scouts is supposed to be about
empowerment and opportunity and I
acknowledge that a lot of troops do
really cool things but I don’t hear
often about Girl Scouts knowing how to
tie a hundred different kinds of knots
or going backpacking for two weeks those
were things I wanted to do when I was
little and my Girl Scout troop and I
never got the opportunity to and a lot
of girls don’t so when I was around 11
my brother joined this robotics team for
high schoolers and they build robots
every year to play a game and that’s a
whole nother story but there was only
one girl on the team that first year so
a few years later they started a middle
school Robotics team that was all girls
it consisted of me and my two friends
Maddy Sophia and it was just the three
of us looking at the time I didn’t like
that it was an all-girls team because at
that point in my life and even now most
of my close friends had been guys but
looking back on it I see how important
it was we weren’t talked down to like we
were dumb girls that obviously couldn’t
build a robot or like that we were only
good for creative things which isn’t a
bad thing to be good at for the record
but we were able to work together
equally and empowered now the whole
purpose of this younger team was to
bring more girls on to the
previously-mentioned High School
Robotics team that my brother was a part
of
so when I moved up to ninth grade we all
joined this micro robotics team and I
have been on it for three years now my
gender has only made it more challenging
I had projects taken from me freshman
year because I was too insecure to stand
up for myself I was talked down to and
on a team of 30 to 40 kids there were
only ten girls I was scared to ask any
questions and make any mistakes at the
risk of looking dumb or seeming
incompetent these problems were shaped
by my insecurities which were caused by
partially by my personality and by the
fact that society makes girls so
susceptible to insecurity this is where
motivation comes into my story though I
met adults and I made a lot of friends
that were like you can do this you know
what you’re doing and you’re just as
competent as everyone else here so I got
my act together and now I am mechanical
lead on my team which means nothing to
most of you so I’m going to freiza as I
am the boss of half my team and everyone
that actually builds the robot which
means I get to boss people around a lot
and I still have issues with insecurity
and confidence but every time I tell
somebody what to do or realize I do know
what I’m talking about or I’m like yeah
I know where that tool is I get a little
more confident and a little more sure of
myself the only reason I made it to
where I am today and I’m trying to be
where I want to be is because I was
given the opportunity the empowerment
and the motivation at a young age to
pursue the career and be who I want to
be so these are just a few of the
experiences in my life that it made me
realize the divide that have showed me
the causes of the gender gap in
engineering I’ve narrowed my point down
to three hits all of which I have
mentioned so far opportunity empowerment
and motivation all of these things are
necessary to close the gap and they
aren’t always given to girls oftentimes
girls at a young age girls aren’t given
the opportunity to learn more about
engineering or STEM related fields and
if they are given the opportunity
oftentimes they aren’t given the
empowerment they’re in the position
where they can build something like a
robot and they don’t feel like they have
the ability to and even if the
are given the opportunity in the
empowerment it’s still hard because
they’re always going to be people that
don’t consider us as capable or skilled
or equal which is where motivation comes
in girls need the motivation to push
past the obstacles and everything that
stands in the way and do what they want
to do now this all starts at a really
young age it’s more than a career and
it’s more than a gender it’s about how
when girls and boys are being raised
they’re already being split into their
roles I’m going to broaden the spectrum
a little bit and talk about chores so
there’s a Times article about how boys
are paid more allowance even though they
are often given less chores and there’s
another article by Washington Post that
confirms this and in addition says the
girls are given 50% more chores than
boys
now this is partially due to the fact
that girls do develop faster but what
this results in is boys having more time
to play doing fun activities and
socialize and because a lot of these
chores are domestic the girls have they
have less time and they have lower
confidence in their ability to do
physical work I’m not going to say this
is all a cause and effect relationship
that chores cause low self-esteem but it
makes sense that there’s some
correlation between more domestic chores
and lower confidence in your ability to
do physical work and it starts when kids
are just kids but it’s also much more
than that it’s a very complicated issue
it’s also society and we all know that
we hear all the time women face so many
obstacles making it to where we want to
be especially in STEM careers but even
outside of that society it constantly
makes us aware of our insecurities and
our flaws it shapes who we think we need
to be teachers when they need a few
books are always like hey can I get a
few strong boys comments are made adding
like a girl to anything makes it an
insult our gender constantly faces
scrutiny and criticism for anything we
do any mistakes we make are immediately
magnified any power we have is easily
dismissed and any anger of frustration
we express is immediately connected to
hormones and it’s up to us to change the
and to make our voices heard and make it
easier for future generations of women
to be considered equal among their male
counterparts I know I just went on a
tangent about irrelevant things like
chores in society but from my
perspective all of these problems with
gender inequalities start in the same
place from the wage gap to the gap in
engineering it’s one more kids it’s when
I’m in a Girl Scouts troop making a card
for my mom and my brother is learning
how to use a knife at the same age it’s
when I’m being told I can’t do something
because I’m a girl or I run like a girl
or I hit like a girl
it’s when my brother is given a higher
allowance and the harder chores like
mowing the lawn and cleaning the gutters
and we all start out the same boys and
girls but as we grow we get split into
our categories our genders and when we
think about what careers we want to
pursue sometimes not all doors seem open
for us it’s hard to want to become a
mechanical engineer when you’ve never
even used a screwdriver and it’s hard to
speak up and a group of guys in an
engineering class when you’ve never been
given the power to do that and it’s hard
to want to push past all these obstacles
and deal with it and be who you want to
be when you’ve never been given the
motivation to do so at this point in our
lives most of us are in high school and
we’ve already passed the point where our
interest would be sparked in engineering
or another field that women have trouble
succeeding in so might seem like it’s
too late for anything that I’ve said to
matter but it’s not if the opportunity
to be who we want to be doesn’t present
itself we can find it and if the
motivation to be successful isn’t there
we can create it ourselves
and if empowerment isn’t around every
corner we can surround ourselves with
people and mindsets that remind us that
we can do whatever we want to and that our gender won’t hold us back thank you