Emily Frantz: Any Ladies in the House? Using SWE to be a Female Roll Model

There has been the question if we have enough female role models for STEM: both role models in the media and enough women out there being real and relatable.  The answer is most definitely no to both!

While yes, we should have strong STEM women as protagonists in more shows on TV and in movies, I don't work in Hollywood, so how can I help there?  I can't do much other than support such productions.

What I CAN do is be a role model myself, and as a SWE member, you can do the same!  Through outreach and mentoring, we can show the next generation what a female engineer, mathematician, chemist, physicist, or computer whiz looks like.  We have jumped one hurdle by having more women pursuing higher education.  In 2009, 57% of college students were women!  Compared to 1970, when less than 27% of female high school graduates enrolled in college, that is a step in the right direction!  The next hurdle?  Women hold less than 25% of STEM jobs.  We need role models to show that these are positions women can not only hold, but excel in!  (Statistics from Getting to the STEM of Gender Inequality)

Chelsea Clinton recently spoke on the issue and gave her opinion that, "I think [girls are] not seeing role models — they’re seeing boys who are astronauts, boys who are engineers, they’re seeing boys who start Facebook or Google, they’re not seeing girls, its really hard to imagine yourself as something that you don’t see, particularly when you’re a kid” (Quote from Girls need STEM role models).  I agree with her.  My father is an engineer and I know that because of seeing that as I grew up, I considered the career.  How often do we hear that someone becomes an engineer because their mother is an engineer?  I haven't heard it often enough from my peers.  As women in STEM, we need to be the role models that we wanted to see growing up.

As Mahatma Gandhi once said (and many have said since), "Be the change that you wish to see in the world".  How to be the change you may ask?

• Become a mentor.  Check out the Women at Rensselaer Mentoring Program and get involved!
• Join RPI SWE's Outreach group!  Multiple times a semester we work with girls of all ages through local schools, Girl Scout troops, and different programs RPI's School of Engineering does (Design Your Future Day for example).

I recently heard this poem:

A Cautious Leader
A cautious leader I must be, for a future leader follows me.
I do not dare go astray, for fear they’ll go the same self-way.
I cannot once escape their eyes, for what they see me do they try.
Like me one day they say they’ll be, the future leader who follows me.
So I must remember as I go, through exhilarating highs and discouraging lows.
That I am building for all to see, the future leader who follows me.
–Anonymous

Just something to keep in mind while we're following our dreams, who we can inspire to follow theirs!

On a side note, the blog THIS IS WHAT A SCIENTIST LOOKS LIKE features posts from real scientists who have submitted their stories!  If you look, at least half of them are women!  Quickly look at the "Stereotype" page too.  I challenge you to submit a post from your summer internships and share it with RPI SWE if you end up on the blog!