Purpose

The purpose of our senior project is to encourage girls of all ages to consider STEM
careers, to instill in them confidence that they can succeed in a male-dominated field, and to get
people talking about the underrepresentation of women in STEM careers and how this affects the
wage gap and systemic disadvantages women face in American society.

Process
This project had several parts. First, we brought in speakers to talk to the AMES service
through science club about STEM opportunities in the future. Second, we advertised and
attended SheTech, a convention designed to expose girls to the possibilities of STEM careers.
Third, we created an exhibit in Skunkworks to bring awareness to the disparities between men
and women in STEM fields, which involved a poster asking people to name from memory five
influential female scientists. We also included an infographic that gave some statistics about
women in STEM and explored why women are so underrepresented, and named off just a few
influential female scientists and encouraged people to talk about female scientists more. Finally,
we presented three demonstrations to young girls at the YWCA to pique their interests in science
and work against some of the social conditioning that often steers young girls away from STEM.

Results
This project changed and evolved as we worked on it throughout the year. Although the
initial idea of a club wasn’t doable, we think that our project, with its many facets, was
successful in that it addressed women in STEM from many different angles. We were able to
encourage both grade school and high school age girls to consider STEM, and to spark a
discussion within our school about the social forces that disadvantage women, a topic that at
least a few people at AMES feel do not exist in any significant way today.