Women account for only 29% of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) labor force and 34.5% of STEM faculty at the nation’s colleges and universities. Women of color are even more underrepresented — making up 4.8% of the STEM workforce and 3.8% of STEM faculty. For decades, researchers have told us that “Girls and women are systematically tracked away from science and math throughout their educations, limiting their training and options to go into these fields as adults.” The challenge is how early do educators and parents need to start with girls in order to eliminate this gender gap.
Middle school student Sriya Tallapragada decided to take on this challenge. According to Sriya, “When the coronavirus pandemic shut down my school, I found myself stuck at home with nothing but my computer as company. Luckily, as a 14-year old STEM aficionado and introvert, this was all I needed. I found the large amounts of time on my hands to be the perfect opportunity to meet my goal of working to close the gender gap in STEM.”
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